MAORIS CELEBRATE

Evening Star, Issue 22843, 29 December 1937, Page 12

MAORIS CELEBRATE

MOERAKI CENTENARY ENDS OPENING. OF MEETING HOUSE Maoris from every part of the South Island took charge of the programme at yesterday’s concluding festivities in connection ’with the Moeraki centenary. The climax to the celebrations that lasted all afternoon was the cooking of a bullock in a huge Maori oven in the na, the (ire to heat the stones'being lit early in the morning and removed before noon, the dissected bullock being placed on a manuka frame over scorching stones, which had been evenly spread in the oven. Flax and wet sacks covered the prepared meal, which was sealed with a thick layer of earth, and after over four hours’ cooking the huge crowd that packed the pa enjoyed the novel experience of seeing the process of uncovering the food which met with a ready sale. The dedication of the meeting-house, which was officially opened, took the form of a religious festival, many of the crowd bearing for the first time familiar hymns sung in Maori by the official choir from Kaiapoi, led by Mr To Ari Pitamn. A prayer was offered by the p ev. Anotoro Paipeta, of Tern nka. Then followed, two hymns, and the ceremony was carried out by a Maori named Hoanimatiu, who recounted to his people the history of the festival. Te Ari Pitama appealed to the pakehas to preserve the pa. which, he said, was the first of its type in the South Island. The final event of an historic commemoration was a ball at night, attended by about 400 persons.