DELIGHTFUL AT HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 127, 31 May 1935, Page 15

DELIGHTFUL AT HOME

LYCEUM CLUB PARTY

MRS. WEDGWOOD ENTER-

TAINED

Warmth, comfort, and colour yesterday made the Lyceum Club rooms a pleasant place in which to' spend the blustery winter afternoon, when an At Home was given in honour of Mrs. C. Wedgwood, the great granddaughter of Governor Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor, and the large clubroom was filled with members and their friends.

Quite a sunny atmosphere prevailed—the creamy yellow walls and the sky-blue curtains blocking out the view of the watery sky outside, made a perfect background for huge brown baskets and crystal bowls and vases filled with lovely yellow chrysanthemums and brick and orange Iceland poppies. Numerous lights shaded with yellow silk completed the warm, cosy effect.

The stage, on which the excellent programme arranged by Mrs. W. Bailey and Mrs. Sample took place, was most comfortably and attractively arranged. Carpeted and furnished with armchairs, it had a background of yellow silk screens. The president ol the club, Mrs. C. J. B. Norwood, in her opening remarks welcomed Mrs. Wedgwood, saying how glad everyone present was to meet her. Mrs. Norwood wore a black frock under a fur coat and a black hat, and Mrs. Wedgwood looked most attractive in a very smart tailored ensemble of oatmeal woollen material, a halo hatband ficessories of nigger brown, and brown furs. She was pre-

sented with a bouquet of violets, pink berries, and maidenhair fern.

Delightful items were given before tea. A pianoforte solo by Miss Hob'bs,' a vocal duet by Mrs. Evvan' and Mrs. Duncan, accompanied by Mrs. Cook, and-an-elocutionary--number by Mrs. Castle. ---■ They-were greatly appreciated, i ■ A delicious tea was served. ' Afterwards Mrs. Norwood called upon Mrs. H. D.- Bennett to give her address on Maori .weaving, which everyone was looking forward to so much. Before starting on her subject, Mrs. Bennett charmingly welcomed Mrs. Wedgwood. She said it had given her great pleasure to be there and to help entertain Mrs. Wedgwood. It seemed appropriate that she should, as they both had ancestors who were present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.' A hundred years had passed since then, Mrs. Bennett said, and the spirit in .which they met today was the result of the peace made by those ancestors. She then greeted her in the eloquent Maori tongue and afterwards translated it. The greeting began with "Welcome, twice welcome," and was made in the name of Mrs. Bennett's ancestors. MAORI INGENUITY. Mrs. Bennett' commenced her most interesting and fluent lecture on "Maori Weaving" by telling how the Maori, when he first came to this country, had to search for something from which to evolve clothing to suit the colder climate, and they discovered^the flax. Almost everything they used was made from it and the flax was almost worshipped by them. Their gardens of flax were- sacred, "tapu," only one person was allowed to cut it. Anyone else who touched it was likely to be killed for it. Life meant little to them in those days. Mrs. Bennett showed the audience a piu-piu and described the enormous amount of labour and skill that went into the making of these garments. With a strip of flax she demonstrated the way in which the Maori cuts and scrapes it to fashion the pattern, and told how it is dyed in boiling grey mud which makes the flax curl and the green portion turn from.green to yellowish-white and the white, from which the green has been scraped, to black. A knife is too sharp for this scraping process, the Maoris using a shell. Two of the beautiful pui-puis, or skirts, shown by Mrs. Bennett were made by a lady in Palmerston North who sells them for £3 10s, which is much less than'their actual worth considering the wonderful work involved, and .gives the money to the Maori Mission. THE "KOROWAI." The korowai or feather mat made by the Maoris is similar to those made by the natives of Hawaii, continued Mrs. Bennett. The Hawaiians' mats are considered the finest in the world, but the New Zealand ones come second. Each little feather on these mats is tied on. Some of the Hawaiian mats are made entirely of little red feathers which grow, one under each wing, of a certain native bird. It can be well imagined the thousands and thousands of these tiny feathers that are needed to make a mat, but the Hawaiian never kills the birds to get' them, but waits for the moulting season. MAT-MAKING CEREMONY. .In olden times, .Mrs. Bennett explained, class distinction was very marked amongst the Maoris and the weaving was only done by women of rank and leisure. When a woman was making a mat she would not even touch food with her hands lest she desecrate them —and she was fed in the manner of the tohungas. It was believed that it was unlucky and that - the pattern would be spoilt if the weaver were in any way interrupted. Women had neither the time nor the patience now-

adays to adhere to the old customs. Mrs. Bennett paid a tribute to the work being done by the Maori arts and crafts school at Rotorua, where, thanks to those who are studying there, the arts of their ancestors were being kept alive. Some of the specimens exhibited were the work of Mrs. Bennett's daughter, Miss June Bennett. Reference was made to the wonderful collection owned by Mrs. E. Gillon of Maori treasures.

Lady Alice Ferguisson was intensely interested in the study of the Maori and before she left the Dominion could sing songs and recite incantations better than many of the Maoris. She begged Mrs. Bennett to encourage the study of native arts and crafts. "I am glad," the speaker added, "that the younger people are taking it up and are making it a very real study." Mrs. Bennett was loudly applauded for her address, and Mrs. Wedgwood returned thanks for the welcome she had received and for being privileged to hear so excellent a speaker as Mrs. Bennett. Mrs. Wedgwood told her listeners that it had been her ambition for some time to come out to New Zealand, and now that she was here, it had completely surpassed all her expectations.

Among those present were Mrs. F. Grant, Miss K. Fuller, Miss Florence George, Mrs. M. Brandon, Mrs. C. M. Bothamley, Mrs. E. E. Gillon, Mrs. Martin, Mrs. G. Lyon, Mrs. Mander, Mrs. W. Wilson, Mrs. E. Martin, Mrs. F. Martin, Mrs. C. Robieson, Mrs. A. S. Willoughby, Mrs. W. Bird, Mrs. H. C. Hunter, Mrs. V. R. Cooke, Mrs. W. E. Walker, Miss G. Cook, Mrs. R. B. Thornhill, Mrs. J. McLaren, Mrs. D. McLaren, Mrs. C. Plank, Mrs. F. Plank, Mrs. E. C. Fussell, Mrs. E. N. Sample, Miss June Bennett, Miss Lindegard, Mrs. J. H. Thompson, Mrs. A. Smith, Mrs. F. Renner, Mrs. N. Herbert, Mrs. Castle, Mrs. Edmonds, Mrs. W. Bailey, Mrs. G. Tyron, Miss A. Gray, Mrs. Hunter, Miss R. S. Maunder, Mrs. E. M. Barker, and others.