NEW MAORI SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21115, 24 February 1932, Page 6

NEW MAORI SOCIETY.

FORMATION IN DUNEDIN. PRESERVING NATIVE HISTORY. [FROM otTO OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] DUNEDIN, Tuesday. An organisation, the Waipounamu Maori Association, has been formed in Dunedin to promote interest in native affairs and to conduct studies of the race. The new society has been promoted on the lines of the Akarana Maori Association in Auckland, and it is hoped to gather a considerable amount of the fastvanishing history of the South Island tribes. Te Waipounamu—"greenstone water" —was the ancient name of the South Island.

The membership has been limited to those belonging to the principal South Island tribe, Ka'i-Tahn, and }o the few Maoris claiming connections with the virtually extinct tribe of Kati-Mamoe. Europeans also will bo admitted upon the nomination of a special committee. No association of the kind has existed in Otago since the disbandment of the Dunedin Maori Association about 70 years ago.

It has been recognised for some time that an authoritative society has been required to record the distinctive South Island Maori cultural influences. The field is not as limited as the small native population in the South would suggest. It has been recognised that valuable services have been performed by similar organisations in the North Island, where most of the principal tribal groups have their own associations.

Two Maori ovens in excellent condition have been discovered at Taiaroa Heads. From one the bones of a type of the extinct Maori dog and a fragment of human bone have been recovered.