PRESERVING THE TYPES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 193, 9 May 1908, Page 13

PRESERVING THE TYPES.

IN MR. ILLING WORTH'S STUDIO. Mr. Nelson Illingworth, the sculptor, has' completed the modelling of another of the series of Maori subjects that are to porpetu- . ato (in bronze) tho Maori race, one of the happiest of artistic ideas to be credited to tho Government. For obvious reasons Sir. Illingworth started on tho best types of the very aged. A reference has been made to \ tho fino study the sculptor made of the old Onolmnga elnef, but his latest achievement oven excels that effort, and Mr. Illmgv.-orfch himself , considers tho latest piece of modelling the best ho has ever done. . It is a bust of Harata te Waipaie or Harata to Kioro, an aged ariki of tho Whanganui tribe, a : niece of the famous warrior Te 'Hamarama, who covered himself with'glory by cutting down tho redoubtable Tuwhare, who headed an invasion from the North in 1820. Harata says she is So years of age, and her photograph would indicate an even greater " age, but the sculptor lias lifted'off the years \ into his art, and has . given a strikingly natural and reposeful study of the placid old lady. Tho delicate tattooing of the chin,' the, receding top lip that comes , .with the loss of teeth, and the soft ruggedness of the skin, all are dopictcd with a refinement and delicacy that is altogether pleasing . and correct. The modelling of? the Native mat or rug which is hung witli a heavy cord fringe and tied loosely' round the heck; necessitated some extra I fine work, and the tiki Harata wears is a model of a genuine. one of great antiquity. Thoro is something rather pathetic in the expression of the face that is peculiar to age in tho Maori, and , which Mr. Illingworth has caught to a nicety. • ■ It is told of Harata that from childhood she was.steeped ill the laws of tapu, ; and it was duo to the fear of thesis becoming defiled , that her people declined to assent to a.marriage with a distinguished South Island chief. Mr. Illingworth, having secured two representatives of tho race -who lived exempt from the public haunt" of the pakelia, will now .turn bis attention towards modelling a young man arid a maid (full-blooded, Maoris), of the present day. i '