MAORI HAKAS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 114, 18 May 1925, Page 7

MAORI HAKAS

AN AUDIENCE DELIGHTED

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 14th March.

At a certain East End cinema this week a percentage of the takings was devoted to the Oxford House Settlement Mission. A programme having a New Zealand interest was interposed between the usual series of pictures. The denizens of Bethnal Green probably have heard very little about New Zealand except that it has produced a team of footballers, so that the swarthy Maori warriors who invaded this part of London the other night appeared as a people from another world, as it were. Therewere about eight or nine hundred people present and they received with enthusiasm mingled with something akin to amazement the dancing of the-hakas and the singing.

The party who organised the Maori programme was drawn from . some o£ those who assisted in the New Zealand section of the Pageant at Wembley. Mr. J. Te Kiri was the leader of the troupe, and other New Zealanders were Mi\ W. P. Te Whiti (Galatea), Mr. E. H. A. Scales (Wellington), Mr. T. R. Brooks (Wellington), Mr. A. E. Cook (Hastings), Mr. W. Sheffield (Rotorua), and Mr. A. Goonan (Auckland). The remaining five who took part were Londoners, who were good enough to help originally in the Empire Pageant.

As an introduction to the programme, a film depicting the wonders of tho Thermal Regions was shown. It was quite evident that the spectators were remarkably interested in the picture, judging from the interjections and the remarks one ■ heard.

Before the native dances were performed, an explanation was give.n of tho position which the Maoris hold in New Zealand, and the audience was informed that tho dances were such as wero rarely seen by European- to-day, though they were a common sight in the early days of settlement. Remembering the wild ideas regarding New Zealand which are held by people who ought to know better, this explanation to an East F,nd audience was perhaps wise.

The dancers were stripped to the waist, and their bodies were darkened with some colouring matter. Each one wore a genuine Maori mat over a pair of football "shorts." Each carried ' a mero except' the leader, who had the Chiefs' official weapon of war. The leader had his face made up to represent a fully tattooed warrior. Four dances were performed with tremendous vigour and reality. It was something that had probably never been seen so far east in London before, and the audience was delighted, and £_aye the dancers an enthusiastic reception. "Etc opi Maori," the farewell song to tho East Coast Maoris departing for the war, was also sung with great effect. The verse was sung by Mr. J. H. Whitehouse. who has a very pleasing voice. In the end the chorus in English was shown on the SCTRBn behind the performers, and the warriors lapsed into English during the singing of thß last few lines.