WELLINGTON MAORI CLUB

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 6

WELLINGTON MAORI CLUB

The monthly meeting of the Wellington Maori Club was held on Monday, when many members ana inenos were present to hear speakers on, the life and works of the late Elsdon Best. Mr. Johannes C. Andersen, who had been closely associated with the late Mr. Best, spoke of the jndearment with which the Maoris held their late friend and of the long years that Mr. Best spent in the wilds of the Urewera Country in close contact .with the learned men of the "Children of the Mist." The speaker referral to the many literary works of and the numerous magazine and newspaper articles which he had contributed; there were about 300 of these. Mr W. W. Bird, whose travels 1.1 the Urewera Country and inland from the Bay of Plenty brought him in contact with Maoris who had known Mr. Best, spoke of the great respect m which Mr. Best had been held, and of the admirable work he performed for the Maoris of the Urewera and the Bay of Plenty in writing the history of the Tuhoe people and placing on record their genealogies. The speaker deplored the lack Of recognition by the authorities of the vast work accomplished by the late Mr. Elsdon Mr. H. M. Christie gave a sketch of the lite of Elsdoh Best, and referred to the earnestness of his works and the sincerity portrayed in his writings cf things sacred to the Maori folk. The speaker quoted extracts from works by Mr. Best, and referred to his remarkable personality and his great object in his declining years/that of recording the immense amount of information gleaned by»him when in the Company of the Maori people. . Mr. J. M. McEwan contributed a song, in Maori.