MAORI CURIOS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 286, 27 August 1908, Page 2

MAORI CURIOS.

A VALUABLE COLLECTION. (by telegraph—ritisss association.) Christchurch, August 25. With a view of adding to the stole of Maori exhibits at the Chnstcliurch Museum, and as far as possible filling tho blanks with typical Maori curios, the curator (Mr. Edgar 11. Waite) and taxidermist (Mr.--W. Sparks) recently made a tour, of the North Island.. They visited Hawko's Bay, Tftj'anaki, Auckland, liotoraa, Bay of Plenty, • and went from Tauranga to Opotiki, and beyond. ! The • collection which they gathered together indicates- that their mission has been an eminently- successful one. The most important acquisition is a whare, which was once the property of the famous To Kooti, chief and prophet. It is believed .that the whare, which was brought from Hotorua, was built in 1830, but in spits of its age most of the timber is in an excellent state of preserva--tion. Some of tho'.carved pillars which have been exposed to the elements for over half a century have suffered, but the best, work has been preserved. Its carvings aro bolder and more ornate than those on. the existing Maori house,' _ and -on the whole the: ola chief's whare.. is considered a much superior specimen of Mgori work. The rafters of the wliare are decorated with silver-coloured-scroll work typically native in design. .The whare was lined with tukatuka, or native lattice work, and this will be used to line the interior of tho Maori house. ,- Genuine tukatuka is very difficult to secure in Nioso days, so the specimen purchased for the museum is extremely valuable. A number of old and more or .less, grotesque carvings were picked up in different places,and they now repose with Te Kooti's dis-.. mantled whare in the workshop attached to' the museum. Prominent in this curious medley of Maori ingenuity is a particularly fine and massive slab bearing the' character- ■ istic figure and carving which -was brought froni Whakarewarewa. The carved door of. a kumara pit, the v fantastically ornamented prows of canoes, and building posts similarly marked, are also included in this extremely valuable and interesting collection. A large number of tho smaller exhibits aTO already, on view in tho show cases in the main ethnological room. Ail interest almost melancholy is roused by a contemplation af' tho disintegrating and mud-stained carvings which are shown in one of the cases. The explanatory legend sets out that they were buried'during tho Tarawera eruption in 1586,' and lately recovered from beneath the volcanic mud at Waitangi, on the shores of Lake Tarawera. Tho carvings are sadly bruised and dilapidated,, but one feels in looking at them that they "have a history almost as", unique, though not quite so ancient, as tho recovered relics of Pompeii. . The new."col-lection,-.taken as a' whole,, is an excellent one, and'it will no • doubt-stimulate the Interest 1 already held.in the Maori court.