Royal Canoe Seen As Maori-Pakeha Symbol

Northern Advocate, 28 October 1948, Page 6

Royal Canoe Seen As Maori-Pakeha Symbol

KAIKOHE, Thu. (Sp.).—“l want this canoe to be a symbol of the working together of Maori and pakeha; it should be a token of the unity of the two races,” said Whautere Witehira, who, with his brother Paora Witehira, directed the transfer of the log from Puketi to Kaikohe.

One hand resting on the rough-hewn side of the great war-waka, he was tremendously in earnest as he tried to convey the ideal behind the construction job.

“We Maoris have done most of the work, but we could have done nothing without the pakeha’s help all along,” he said.

On the outside of the hollowed shape, in capital letters blacked in by one of the younger men the words “Ngapuhi Royal Canoe” blazoned the log’s ultimate purpose to all who saw it on the arduous trip into Kaikohe. And on that trip the enthusiastic young Witehiras, Wihongis, Eremihas, Ashbys and others who had laboured for a fortnight past, sat unconcernedly in the hollow of the log as it snaked its way through the winding, potholed, and ill-cambered Waiare road.

At intervals, like Hollywood stars, they instinctively turned on their best smiles as spectators clicked cameras. At still more frequent intervals they had to dismount and put their timberjacks to work to ease the trailer out of a sort of watertable, replace a burst tire or readjust the tracking of the wheels.

worked without pat Those men were the same who felled the giant kauri down in the Manginangina gully of the Puketi bush. They had camped in huts a few chains away, and worked on the job from morning till dark. By the obvious keenness they put into their work in the shifting of the log, they still have a big reserve of enthusiasm left. All this work has been done without thought of pay. If it comes to that, there is no one to pay them. The job is one of loyalty and ambition only.” Among the workmen were two experienced bushmen, Bill Ashby and Bill Wihongi. To see six or seven timberjacks being used at one time while other men lashed and tied, carried chocks or blocks, was an education.

It proved conclusively that the Maori of today is quite able to work continuously. Each man was looking for a job. No jack or rope remained long in idleness. A continual banter ran up, but the work never slowed down because of it. And on Tuesday, it was 4 o’clock before the first complaints were heard that breakfast was scanty and a long way off, and that lunch had been skipped altogether. OMENS PROPITIOUS To the Maori mind, everything augured well. For omens, there were the rapid healing of a cut suffered by one axeman down in the bush; there were the little showers that had swept over at each stage of the start of the enterprise; there were the. undoubted facts that the main moving jobs were effected without mishap. That is to say, the tree fell right, (or very nearly so),the semi-hollowed log was dragged out of the steepsided gully without damage to itself or to other trees; it was jacked on to the truck and trailer without harm; it was brought successfully into Kaikohe and transferred to the ground again.

When felled, the tree’s trunk and head weighed probably 20 tons. Yet the only damage sustained was a small crack that ran from the core of the heart timber a few inches, extending 10 or 15 ft lengthwise. The whole of this crack will be excised in further hollowing of the log. It has no importance—in fact, such a crack usually develops when a big tree is brought down. Over Labour week-end, Mr J. M. McEwen, departmental Maori research officer and an acknowledged authority on native history and carving, was in Kaikohe. He was unable to see the log brought in from the skids, however, as the weather was too wet to allow the roads to be used until this week.