THE MAORI IN BRONZE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13702, 19 March 1908, Page 6

THE MAORI IN BRONZE.

A SCULPTOR'S TRIALS

HISTORIC RACIAL TYPES

Tire Maori of the old school does not care to live in bronze. The Government is anxious to preserve his classic features for the admiration of posterity, but the Mlaori is not chasing immortality. To Mr. Nelson lllingworth was entrusted the important task of fixing in bronze the distinctive Maori facial characteristics, before they are effaced by civilised life and European intermarriage. Mr. Iliingworth had scarcely entered on his work before he found it strewn with some peculiar difficulties. The young Maori, no doubt, would rush the opportunity of gazing at himself in bronze, but the old natives, from whom Mr. lllingworth desired sittings, as coming closer to the historic racial types, had (says the Wellington Dominion) notions of their own upon the matter. An old lady who was told that it was desired to make a. bust of her in bronze was horrified at, the suggestion. She explained at last that if the bust was executed in her likeness, her spirit would most probably take refuge therein, where it would be confined perpetually. No arguments could persuade her to risk this fearful doom.

Giber ancient Maoris of both sexes made the same insuperable objection to becoming models, and when, in some cases, it was overcome, difficulties still remained. Appointments made for sittings were hardly ever kept, and as for punctuality, that was hopeless. Mr. lllingworth soon decided that it was vain to expect the Maoris to come to him, so he determined to go to them. We. A. Hamilton, director of the Dominion Museum, who has a large knowledge of the native race, set him in the track of likely subjects, and the sculptor, with' his tools and clay, went forth into the wilderness. In the Auckland district he discovered his first sitter, Batata To Tula, a tine old chief, over 80 years of age. He would never have allowed any liberties to be. taken with his aristocratic countenance, but. Mi'. lllingworth had thoroughly enlisted the assistance of Mr. Hone Hoke, M.P. The Maori member wrote a letter to the old chieftain, which caused him to submit gracefully to the strange ordeal. Mr. Iliingworth visited him for several successive days in his whare, dined with him, made a friend of him, and succeeded in making, in the whare, a rough cast, of his features. With some soft clay he also took a separate impression of the "old chief's tatoo marks. In most paintings of Maoris the " moku" is represented as perfectly regular in appearance, and depth, but Mr. lllingworth states that it is not so in reality, as the outlines become blurred in parts with time. While the cast was being made, half-a-dozen other Maoris Matched the work with interest, but without, appreciation. If was only a rough cast, and tin; natives formed a poor opinion of " Iringiwata" as a sculptor, nor had they any scruples about making their opinion known. Mr. Ulingworth has returned to Wellington to work on bis first .Maori bust. The features of Patara To Tuhi will not be reproduced exactly. The object of the sculptor is to perpetuate an ancient Maori type, and if To Ttibi's features have departed, at any point from the ancestral pattern, the sculptor will conform them in his model to (he old ideal. In a tew weeks' time Mr. lllingworth, armed with letters from the Maori members, will go back into the wddernecfi in fittest of other subjects.