CHIEF CEREMONIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21717, 5 February 1934, Page 11

CHIEF CEREMONIES

PROGRAMME FOR TO-DAY WELCOME TO THE GOVERNOR PARLIAMENTARY PARTY UNFURLING FLAG TO-MORROW The official celebrations of the anniversary of signing the Treaty of "Waitangi will commence this morning, the ceremonial welcomes which have been given during the past week to the visiting representatives of the Maori tribes being but a prelude to the main events. The visiting members of Parliament and their wives and guests, who will arrive at Opua by the Parliamentary train this morning, will be the first to take part in the celebrations. At 9.30 a.m. they leave by launch for Ti Point, the seen? of the ceremonies for to-day, and will be given a Maori reception at 11 o'clock. The ceremonies are to be followed by a luncheon. In the afternoon, the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, and Lady Bledisloe will land from the Government steamer Matai in time for the special reception at 2.30. A colourful scene will be presented by the typical Maori welcome, the natives wearing traditional dress and giving their tribal hakas in honour of the distinguished arrivals.

When the special reception concludes the visitors will be provided with afternoon tea at Ti Point, after which the departure of Their Excellencies will take place. Tea is to be served at the same point, and in the evening there are no fixed engagements, but launches will leave for Opua at intervals of one hour until 10 p.m. Supper has been arranged in a marquee at Opua Wharf until 10.30 p.m.

To-morrow the main ceremony at the Residency, which will take place in the afternoon, includes the unfurling of the Union Jack and the laying <}f the carved porch sill of the runanga. The fine flagstaff in front of the Residency is 90ft. high, and after to-morrow it will never be without a Union Jack from dawn to dusk.

The runanga is to be erected in the course of the next five or six years. The beam which is to be laid has been prepared by the School of Maori Art, and it will be placed in a concrete bed.

RAROTONGANS ARRIVE MINGLE WITH MAORI COUSINS BASKETS OF ISLAND BANANAS [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WAITANGI, Sunday Throughout to-day, the marae, or open space, of the camp, was thronged by natives, all of whom had some task to perform, someone to meet—a task itself in the topsy-turvey world at Ti Point —or some ceremonial to witness. It was a day for a whole-hearted greeting of the Rarotongans, who, because of their late arrival last evening, were concerned in only a brief ceremonial of welcome. It took place when dusk had the Bay of Islands in its grip and the hills lost their contours in the growing darkness —such a scene as might have given the first Polynesian voyagers to Aotearoa an appreciation of the charm of this countryside.

Sir Apirana Ngata welcomed the Islanders and emphasised the bond between them and the New Zealand natives, an especially strong bond on the occasion of the Waitangi celebrations. The Rarotongan leader, Makea Nui Tinirau, replied appropriately, and then it became a question of making the Islanders comfortable in their quarters in the Treaty Hall on the beach. There was a different spirit to-day, when the Rarotongans were able to mingle with their Maori cousins. It was not difficult for them to do, for the Rarotongans have the buoyant nature of most Polynesians. They watched with great eagerness poi dances and hakas by several tribal parties. At lunch time, the Islanders provided a popular addition to the severe fare in tho huge dining marquee when several of them bore to the "galley" Island-made baskets of bark containing bananas. So pleased were tho Maoris with the gift that a haka was given on the instant, an outstanding figure being Mr. Taite Te Tomo, M.P. for "Western Maori.

IMPROMPTU WAR DANCE EX-SOLDIERS ON THE MARAE [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WAITANGI, Sunday Whenever there is a haka, it seems, Mr. Taito Te Tomo, M.P. for Western Maori, is not far away. Suddenly, on the marae this afternoon, when Maori returned soldiers were rehearsing their part in to-mor-row's official ceremony, Mr. Te Tomo chanted the stirring words of the famous "Kamate" haka. Maoris for a considerable distance around took' up the responses, the impromptu effortbeing all the more impressive because of its unexpectedness.