Haka Greets Princess Aboard H.M.N.Z.S. Otago

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 24

Haka Greets Princess Aboard H.M.N.Z.S. Otago

[From the London Correspondent of "The Press”]

LONDON, November 16.

' A brisk November morning and the Pool of London are neither the best time nor place for 14 of the 16 Maori men in the crew of H.M.N.Z.S. Otago to strip of! their shirts to perform a tradi-; tion-al challenge and haka. There would have been 16 if New Zealand House could have found enough piu-pius. But today Princes® Margret and Mr Antony Armstrong-Jones seemed well pleased with the lively if shivery welcome they got aboard the frigate in the Thames.

TAS (Torpedo Anti-Submarine) Rating Horopapera Whaanga from j Opoutaifta was responsible for drilling the haka. It was Able Seaman Ray Tito from Waitara j who leapt forward with his itaiaha spear to issue the challenge ’to the Royal party. He tossed down a green sprig that could have passed for manuka ’ and which for the seasonal lack of a better substitute, stood in for a fern leaf. “It should have been a fern leaf,’’ worried Whaanga. but as something green it at least symbolised the new friendship that its acceptance by the Princess implied. She picked it up from the little table thoughtfully provided to avoid her bending to the quarter deck. The ship’s company also had a gift for her. a silver paper knife with a greenstone handle. Commander M. J. McDowell, the Otago’s captain. presented it when the Princess was brought aboard by the navy’s liaison officer in London, Captain F. N. F. Johnston. The Port of London Authority

had laid out its red carpet (rubber) on Tower Pier, the same pier from which the Princess and her husband embarked last May to join the Royal yacht Britannia in the Pool for their Caribbean honeymoon.

Princess Margaret was wearing a large and gay pink, red and white cloche hat, a Simone Mirman creation from fluffy moufflon plaited with satin ribbons and banded with red petersham. And she was wearing the flower brooch the builders. John I. Thorneycroft Ltd., presented to her when she launched the Otago at Southampton nearly two years ago. She inspected the guard of honour, she watched the haka which was exotic enough to stop the unloading of butter boxes at a Tooley street wharf nearby and to divert the crews of the muscular little barge tugs that churned by. Then Lieutenant-Commander J. Hall showed off the six-highly sophisticated mortars as samples of the anti-submarine weapons he controls. Then the Princess went below to inspect the frigate’s glossy interior. She had to change into low-heeled shoes to manage the steep companionways.

As wardroom president. Lieu-tenant-Commander K. M. Sauli was host at lunch for the guests, captain and officers—salmon, followed by Southern fried chicken. It is a handsome wardroom with a green, fern-feaf design carpet, walls panelled in grey flat plastic, rod leather chairs and settees, and Australian walnut furnishings. Before the visitors left to the ship’s cheers the Maori choir sang

"Haere Mai.’’ Then the Otago began to ready for sailing on the high tide next morning.