MAORI CEREMONIES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18503, 15 September 1934, Page 2

MAORI CEREMONIES

OLD BREACH HEALED

KING-IT ES AND All A WAS i (Per Press Association.) ROTORUA, last night, . paying the iirsfc visit of any Alaon King to tho Arnsva territory since 1833, when King Tawhaio visited Maketu, Koroki, the newly-crowned king, accompanied by Princess Te Puca and a party of over 70 settlers of the Waikato, Ngapuhi, Tanranga, and Taupo tribes, was to-day welcomed on the kainga of the Ngati-Pikiao, one of the largest snbtribes of the Te Arawa resting around the shore of Page Rotoiti. Picturesque and traditional Maori ceremonies were associated with the welcome, the Ngati-Pikiao mustering in force to greet the visitors, with waving fern fronds and branches of trees. The ceremony marked the healing ot a long-sti, r nnp; oreach between the Ngati-pikiao and the Waikato tribes, and in speeches mafic by the leaders of the two parties the hope was expressed that the meeting would load to a reconciliation between the .whole of the Te A raw a and the King party, i A large hall erected, on tne NgatiPikiao ki.inga was dedicated by two tohungas attached to the. King’s party, , with traditional ceremony and to the ' ficcompaniment of chants sung by the , Maoris of old on these occasions. King Koroki then turned the key in the door 1 of tho hall, in which a large conference ■ of the. tribes represented was held during the evening.