A MODEL CANOE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 13 December 1926, Page 3

A MODEL CANOE.

dominion museum treasures An addition to the Dominion Mueeum of more than ordinary interest is a model of a Maori canoe. It is no modern model of the old -style of craft Says a metropolitan paper), but am old Maori-made miniature canoe, complete n ail its details and carvings, and large enough to hold a couple of boys and even one small man. The lustoiy of the canoe, why it was made, or for whom, does not .seem to be known Sometime in the ’forties apparently it was acquired by a visiting warship and taken to England. After having -reposed in the Royal Naval Museum at, Greenwich amongst the collection of model chaft, the Admiralty offered the canoe to the New Zealand Court at the Wembley Exhibition, and from there it'has oorne back to its native land to find a final resting place m the capital of the Dominion. One- may conjecture as to the. origin of this well-preserved rehc, but nothing seems to be known for certain, It may be that it was made by .some chief of the earlv days as a present to the pakeha. or it may be that it was constructed as a gift .for -some chieftain s son so that he might emulate his ance store in their voyage from far-off islands The canoe is a relic wlucli the museum authorities look upon as a very valuable addition to the Mnoi collection. . . This model, which is 12 feet m length, and IB inches broad in its widest part, is a genuine Maori production in every sense of the word. It is made from a kauri log, and the top str alters are carved with a very old Maori pattern, and all the inside-lash-ings arc done in the approved Maori fashion, the canoe having been constructed long before the days of nails

and screws. The carved prow, or tau> hu, contains a peculiar figure on either side, and the three-foot high sternpiece. or taurapa, is a marvel of intricate scroll work. During the days of the canoe s storage it had been painted, probably more than once. In the workshop of the Dominion Museum this extraneous paint is being cleaned off, so as to expose the original jn its proper ,state, and where necessarv repairs are being made to the carvings. When this work is completed the canoe will be /placed on view in the museum, and should prove to be of great interest. There is one feature of the oonstruotoin of the canoe which shows that the old Maori had litb’e to learn front the modem builders of speed' boats. The under surface of the bow end of the canoe had been roughened into grooves, which fact, by the formation of what may be termed an air cushion, tends to increase the speed of the craft through the water. This provision of a surface to which air may adhere is one of the features now incorporated in racing vessels as the result of modern experiments, but the so-called uneducated Maori evidently know of ite va tio lon# years ago.