MAORI WAR CANOE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26491, 4 August 1951, Page 2

MAORI WAR CANOE

MOVE TO NEW HALL IN MUSEUM FIFTY CHRIST’S COLLEGE BOYS HELP The .47ft Maori war canoe, Te Heke Rangatira, which has for two years rested in the Maori house of the Canterbury Museum, was shifted into the hall of folk culture by 50 senior pupils of Christ’s College yesterday. The canoe was probably built in the 1840’s. The canoe’s name means ‘‘The Migration of the Chiefs,” and refers to the migration of some Wairarapa Maoris from the Napier district to southern Wairarapa about 1700. The top strakes, stern and prow pieces now on the canoe were restored in the Dominion Museum by Mr Tamati Heberley, and the canoe was transferred to the Canterbury Museum by Dr. Falla, on indefinite loan, in 1949. The work of fitting out the hull of the canoe, which is a single piece of totara, was carried out by Mr I. T. Tuarau, an expert Maori carver attached to the Dominion Museum. The braiding used to lash the top strakes, thwarts, etc., to the hull, was made of flax fibre spun into a three-ply rope 187 yards long. The whole operation of fitting out the canoe, including lashing on the tufts of albatross feathers along the sides took seven weeks. “Unfortunately soon after it was open for display some thoughtless members of the public plucked out all the albatross feathers and -in some cases cut the lashings. As the lashings on either side are one continuous rope the public will readily realise what a wanton act of vandalism it was,” said the director of the museuifi (Dr. Roger Duff). “It is hoped that in its new setting the canoe will inspire more respect so this will not be repeated. It is in probably the best setting for a Maori canoe in any New Zealand museum,” he said.

When the canoe first arrived in 1949 it was taken into the Maori house by a party of Christ’s College boys, but then it did not have the top strakes and other adornments which probably account for about 25 per cent, of its weight.