MAORI CARVING AND CARVERS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13747, 31 May 1910, Page 6

MAORI CARVING AND CARVERS.

The book of Maori carvings which was presented to his Excellency tho Governor last night is that recently produced by an old Canterbury resident, Mr J. H. Menaios, whose interest in tho subject is well known. Besides its twentyeight beautiful reproductions of antique patterns, the volume records, in a brief the facts which entitle them to take a distinct place in tho world of art. For Maori carving, in its classic days, was not only a fin© craft, hut the witness to a people's high esteem for the artist-craftsman. A Maori had to bo of good birth to become a carver. Such work was not to bo placed in ignoble hand*?. The man who began a piece of work sanctified it and himsolf, by the recitation of certain preliminary praj*ers, or "karakias." Work marred by hasty or careless execution brought 111-inck upon the carver first, and afterwards upon any one who became its owner. The eld karakins for these patterns arc forgotten, but not the old belief in their necessity, and if, without their aid, the work went badly, the yonng Maori to-day would still fear that he-might be bringing down somo haunting curse upon his head. Mr Menzios pictures tbe typical Maori carver of long ago as an old man, sitting apart upon a sand hill, or in some secluded place, with a young attendant en the watch for enemies, while he absorbed himself in these intricate curves and lines. But there were also guilds of carvers, who went from place to place, making

dwellings beautiful* and. chasrging, as good artiste should, a very high price. Each man had his own espec-M mark, which he placed somewhere amongst the scrolls when the work was authenticating it. in due form, by the artist's signature. It was Mr Menzies's own inspiration, however, to combine some of these fine antique patterns with inscriptions of Maori proverbs. "The corners of a house are visible; the corners of the heart aro invisible," seems a motto directly drawn from the meditations of an artist rangatira upon his sandhill. And tbo reflection, "So that when I snake mine eyes may rest upon tbo jewel house of Rua" (for instance, a pounamu, hoi-tiki, or piece of rich carving), conveys a sentiment worthy ol the beauty-loving Japanese, and is truly typical of the artist class -w_ea _\ T ew Zealand was still "Te Jka a Maui. r '