FOSTERING MAORI ART

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 80, 28 December 1928, Page 8

FOSTERING MAORI ART

SCHEME FOR MODEL . NATIVE VILLAGES Dominion Special Service. Auckland, December 27. In pursuance of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission which reported in 1926 upon the advisability of establishing model native villages at Whakarewarewa and Ohinemutu at Rotorua, the Government has instructed Mr. It. B. Hammond, until lately the Director of Town Planning, who was a member of the Commission, to prepare a scheme for a new village adjacent to the inhabited area at Whakarewarewa. The purpose is not to supersede the present village, but to lay out a site upon which new houses of an approved type can be built. This will relieve , the over-crowd-ing that exists, and make an easier-task of replacing a number of unsightly dwellings now used by native families. The site was selected some tinje ago, and is referred to in the report. Mr. Hammond will leave Auckland for Rotorua next week in order to discuss the scheme on the ground, with the Native Minister,. Sir Apirana Ngata. The type of dwellings to be erected on the site in future is not in question at present, but will be dealt with later. It is taken for granted by. all concerned, that characterless small cottages and huts, which make up much of the existing villages, will have to give place ultimately to suitable houses, which, as the Commission stated, can be designed in conformity with the essentials of Maori art and architecture. Since the Commission reported, some minor improvements have geen made at Whakarewarewa by demolishing certain of the more unsightly buildings as a temporary measure, until the remodelling scheme could be launched.