Native Gathering.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5569, 14 September 1889, Page 3

Native Gathering.

A Palmerston North despatch says :— A number of Maoris who have been living for some time past at Awhauri haveformed ft settlement at Aorangi, near the Oroua River, and the great feast just held was in celebration of the completion of the meeting house. Twelve capital residences have been erected, and the vhare puni building HOh long by 30ft wide, is pleasingly decorated internally. Natives from all parts of the colony attended the opening ceremony, at which the Rev. Williams, of Putiki, officiated, and a number of girls from the Wanganui Native College assisted in the musical part, which was led by a young Maori precentor named Taki Simeon. The collection was especially notable for the absence of threepenny bits, pound notes being more plentiful. Services for the Roman Catholic natives were held in another building. After the services a large procession was formed of women, carrying food for the feast, which comprised immense wedding cakes, enormous plum-puddings, smoked eels, pigeons, mutton birds, «.V:c. About 500 natives were assembled, and the cost of the celebration is estimated at LI 50. Dancing and intoxicating liquors were forbidden, the natives having resolved to lead sober, religious lives. A very noticeable feature is the amount of bush felling and clearing done by the Maoris at the .settlement. The only disappointing feature of the affair was the conduct of a lot of pakeha larrikins, who behaved outrageously, one coining in for a sound drubbing from the natives for insulting a woman.