IMPORTANT MAORI OCCASION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 11

IMPORTANT MAORI OCCASION

Opening Of Court At

Exhibition

NATIVES GATHERING FROM MANY DISTRICTS

This afternoon the great Maori Court at the Centennial Exhibition will be opened with elaborate Maori ceremony such as has rarely been witnessed in Wellington. The event will be the most important at the Exhibition since opening day. A very large attendance is expected, and Maoris from far parts of New Zealand are gathering in Wellington for the occasion. The prime Minister, Mr. Savage, will perform the actual opening ceremony. Official visitors will include the Acting-Minister of Native Affairs, Mr. Langstone, the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, who is also president of the Exhibition, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry. The ceremony will begin at 3 p.in. in the south bandshell, where a guard of honour consisting of IGO men of the Maori battalion from Trentham will be drawn up. Visitors will be welcomed in the Maori manner with “Ka Mate” and other ngeri, and with a poi dance and action song by the NgatiPoneke or Wellington natives. The speech of welcome will be made by Mr. Hapi Love, descendant of the famous chief W’i Tako. Representatives of the Arawa tribe, 90 strong, will give an item, after which Mr. Hemana Pokina will speak on behalf of the visiting tribes. Meantime the members of the Maori battalion will have piled arms and stripped, and will give a haka or war dance which, will be one of the highlights of the afternoon. Speeches will then be made by Sir Apirana Ngata, the chairman of the Exhibition directors, Mr. Hislop, the president, Mr. Sullivan, and the Prime Minister, who will briefly acknowledge his welcome. At this stage the official party will enter the Transport Court, and will take up positions iu the marae or courtyard of the Maori Court, where they Will be received with further Maori ceremonial and entertainment.

The most solemn rite of the afternoon will be performed by a tohunga of the Arawa tribe—the traditional kawa ceremony, or lifting of the tapu imposed on the house during its building, for unless this were done it could never be used as a place of entertainment and assembly. After the kawa ceremony Mr. Savage will declare the court formally open, and with the official visitors will enter the court, inspect the interior,, aud be entertained by the Maoris. A Maori social and dance will be held in the assembly hall, from 8 p.m. to midnight, and the visiting Arawas assisted by the Ngati-Poneke will give two 45-minute concerts in the Maori Court at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Concerts will be given in the court every afternoon and evening this week and on Monday, and will afford Wellington people a rare opportunity of seeing and hearing Maori music, song and dancing at its best. The Arawa party, numbering some 120, will arrive at Wellington this morning by train from Rotorua, and will be accommodated at Petone. Other parties will arrive from Otaki and the Manawatu, and from the East Coast. Representatives of the various tribes are expected also from Hawke’s Bay, Wanganui, Taranaki, Taupo, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and from the South Island.