BEAUTIFUL PRESENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 12

BEAUTIFUL PRESENTS

(By -eleoraph.l (Special to "The Evening Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. Chaste workmanship and artistic conception of design are shown in two of the presents which will be made to the Duke and Duchess during their visit to Dunedin. The address from the citizens will be housed -in a beautifully carved casket, a miniature .Maori whare or storehouse a foot high standing on a base 18in long. The base is made of mottled totara knot, with two large slabs of rough greenstone. The whare is supported by six legs of grass-tree wood, four of them resting on the stone. The whare is a highly artistic work of art, and true Maori carvings are done on kowhai. The details have been attended to with minute care, the eyes of the tiny, figures having been inlaid with pawa shell. The present from the school children of Otago is charming, both in conception and workmanship. The tray is of mottled kauri relieved with carved kowhai edges, with Maori gods at each corner. Their eyes are inlaid with pawa shell. At the top left corner of the tray appears the word, in gold, "Aroha." In the centre is the golden coat of arms of the Duke and Duchess —a crown surmounted by a crowned lion. On the right-hand side the words "Ake Ake" are placed. The placing of the words and of the coat of arms is figurative, and the meaning is "Love to the Duke and Duchess of York for ever and ever." In the centre tray is a rough greenstone slab with two silver kiwis supporting a solid silver book, with the address in blue. In relief at the sides of the book appear greenstone tiki and koropepe, and at the bottom of the tray are the words "Otago" and "New Zealand," : in gold, with the Dunedin coat of arms in between, also in gold.