VICE-REGAL PARTY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 June 1935, Page 6

VICE-REGAL PARTY

VISIT TO ROTORUA A MAORI WELCOME (By Telegraph—Press Association) ROTORUA, 7th June. The Governor-General and Viscountess Galway are at present paying their first visit to the Rotorua, district, accompanied by their family. The vice-regal party was accorded a civic •'welcome, on arrival on Thursday afternoon, and in the evening their Excellencies were the guests _ at a social function at which they met representative citizens. They were welcomed on the marae at Ohinemutu by the Arawa tirbe this morning when a splendid demonstration of Native pois and liakas was •given by over 200 women and warriors. Traditional Native ceremony marked the welcome, and their Excellencies were obviously impressed by their first glimpse of Maori ceremonial. Lord Galway inspected a parade of Maori returned soldiers and received a petition praying that the word “massacre” be removed from the signboard erected on the site of the Opepe engagement, near Taupo, in June, 1869, when a party of Bay of Plenty cavalry were surprised and killed by hostile Natives under the Hau Hau ieader Te Kooti. The petition pointed out that the engagement took place between armed forces during a slate of war, and could not, therefore, be called a “massacre.” Lord Galway promised to refer the matter to his Ministers. In the evening their Excellencies attended a Maori concert, and during the week-end they will visit a number oi" scenic./attra'ctions in the district.