HISTORY OF OTAGO TEXTILES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19844, 17 July 1926, Page 9

HISTORY OF OTAGO TEXTILES

AN APPEAL

In the latest issue of the Journal of tlie Polynesian Society appears the final instalment of Dr Peter Duck’s papers on tlie evolution of Maori clothing, completing the tii est piece of research not alone in Maori technology but in the whole held of Polynesian craftsmanship Dr Buck began his work with an investigation into the technique of Maori basketry 01 wickerwork of netting, and of tukntuku pannelling, his results appear inor in a seiics of excellent papers in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. When the ground had thus been cleared he set lo work on the much larger and more difficult field of Maori clothing. Ho set himself the task of learning every step in the whole technology of flax work, not omitting all grades of scutching and cleaning, dyeing, spinning and plaiting. Finally, all the many types of garment were in'estigated, their manufacture learned, and the whole written down. In a series of nine papers published in the Journal ol the Polynesian Society illustrated with many plates and <■ e hundred and fifty beautiful drawings, he has re corded the art, and in the final paper, just publifhcd, he has drawn his conclusions as to its origins. He shows that basketry and plaiting were fully developed in Polynesia before the Maori came to New Zealand and a slight further advance had been made by applying the methods oi basketry to pliable materials for the manufacture o f simple kilts. But as in Polynesia a suitable material for almost ill types of clothing was supplied by tapa cloth the kilt remained in oh scurity. When the Maori ancestor’s came to New Zealand they found a climate too cold for the paper mulberry from the inner ba-lc of which tapa is made, and were forced to employ on the fibre of New Zealand flax the basketry methods already tentatively applied in tropica] Polynesia. To the industry and ingenuity of Maori women working along these lines in the last five centuries is due the great variety and beauty of types of clothing to be seen in the Maori section of our museum. Dr Bucks investigation is of great in terost but it should appeal especially to Otago people, first because the author is a graduate of the University of Otago, and secondly, because the most important piece of evidence in the whole research, the key piece in the history of the art of Maori textiles, is supplied by an ancient Otago ch ak, found long ago in a cave at Mount Bengcr, by Mr Cocker and presented by him to the Otago University Museum in the ’seventies. This venerable garment is so important that its de scription occupies no less than six and a-half pages and calls for eleven drawings and diagrams. Its makers followed a tradition still adhered to in Otago, as our northern friends aver, by lagging a trifle behind the fashions of the north, retaining a cut and finish which cousins from the Waitcmala must have regarded as hopelessly antiquated. Nor was the material quite above criticism for, although the foundation was of flax fibre beautifully worked and finished the knap which turned the rain from the wearer’s shoulders, was made of a local material, vi/., good Otago tussock. On this point, too, its old-time maker might have been blamed for undue provincialism. Ft is, however, from these very characteristics that the cloak draws its importance. The reflection arises—what if this piece of Otago handicraft had not reached ihe shelter if the Museum? What if, like hundreds of other Maori relics found in the .dry climate of inland Otago, it had been taken home to for”! a nine days wonder end then to languish amid the dust of the stable loft until thrown om to burn beneath the copper on some Monday morning? The answer is that science, the Museum, and ultimately the general public, would have been for all time ttio loser, just as they have been the loser by every other of the hundreds of pieces that have been destroyed. We appeal to all loyal Otagoiles who have such material in their possession to run no further risks but to band it oyer at once. In the museum that material will bo safe, and in the new wing it will render corr pleter the record of the handicrafts of our Otago Maoris.