NOTABLE NATIVE MEMORIAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1042, 3 February 1911, Page 6

NOTABLE NATIVE MEMORIAL.

TO A WAIRARAPA CHIEF. On March 2-2 tho memorial to the lato Wairarapa chief Mahupuku is to be formally unveiled at Papawai (near Greytown). The memorial, which was designed by Mr. Nelson Illingworth, is a mauso-lo'um-like structure, with four sides, pillared corners, and a dome-roof terminating in an ornamental globe. It is already in position, and only requires tho fixingin of tho sculptured panels, which are at present being . modelled by -Mr. Illingworth at his studio in Nairn Street. A Dominion' representative visited the studio yesterday, and was shown the casts of two of the panels, and the clay model of the third. One. is a striking portrait of handsome: old Mahupuku, as'ho .was-be-fore the liand of time had made its impress on the-sturdy figure. He is pictured in full Maori dress, witk the pride of blood and race nicely suggested in pose and expression. Another panel shows Mahupukii in the act of signing the jubilee memorial to.the late Queen Victoria, with the late Mr. Seddon sitting on the other side of'the table, and the Hon; James Carroll,- Parata, and several notable ' Natives faithfully pictured, in a group of heads at the back. In this panel the portraiture is particularly good.. The third panel is entitled "The Coming of the Pakeha," and embodies an idea based-on words spoken by Mahupuku oil a notablo occasion when he said very truthfully that he stood on the borderland between the old and the new order of things in New Zealand. The design consists of a-group of figures—a fine oldtime Maori warrior, his face corrugated with rich tattooing, and wearing his hair in the top-knot of a century ago. Bolt upright, and grasping a taiaha in onehand, he gazes pensively out of the panel —to the future. Beside him is a characteristically young 'and* beautiful Maori mother and her baby boy, both looking forward to the , future, and the pakeha already (invisibly) in view. The warrior of older-time might, with the aid of a little imagination, symbolijo tho dead chief, whilst the young woman and her child represent those who would become the fellow-citizens of the aggressive white man. The artistic craftsmanship of Mr. Illingworth is evident in each of the panels. The fourth side nf the memorial will be occupied by a marble plate, which will bear an appropriate inscription. The panels are to be cast in bronze by a new process of electrical deposit, which has s-.uporscded the old "foundry" methods of bronze-casting. This work will be proceeded with on the arrival of a special dynamo now on tho water, but due here in a week's time.

It is anticipated that tho Primo Minister, the Native Minister, and other members of the Cabinet will attend the unveiling ceremony.