MAORI ENTERTAINMENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19322, 25 October 1932, Page 8

MAORI ENTERTAINMENT

FINE PROGRAMME BY TOURING PARTY. An enthusiastic audience gathered at St. Mary’s Hall, Church Street, last evening to witness the presentation of a pageant of Maori life and customs which was given by the Anglican Maori Mission Party, under the leadership of Te Ari Pitama. The party, which comprises artists from Rotorua, Whakatane, Wellington and Canterbury. is touring the diocese to rar e funds for a memorial scholarship to the late Rev. C. A. Fraer, a firm friend of the Maori and one-time vicar at Huahiwi, the Maori settlement near Kaiapoi. Prior to the start of the performance, Mr Pitama, in a brief address explained some of the more obscurc points of Maori customs, and also gave explanations of the various items which were to be presented on rlie stage. The programme was divided into three portions. Of these, the first was traditional and entirely Maori. It included an ancient chant which was introduced to the Arawa people of Rotorua when the Christian Missionaries first reached the thermal region. A traditional Maori welcbme was followed by old time poi-dances, the stick game of titi-torea, invocations and hakas. At the conclusion of this section the curtain fell to denote the passing of time, and then followed the second and third portions of the programme, which although still Maori, were more of a European nature. In these sections, love ditties, semi-modern poidances and action songs, interspersed with solos, the Kopi-Kopi (a Maoii dance somewhat resembling __ the Hawaiian hula), and the ever popular haka, provided a .remarkable contrast to the first portion of. the programme, which was intended to be as much an education to the. audience as an entertainment-. The old Polynesian scale, with its semi and quarter-tones, was shaded by Western influences and imported culture. The farewell action song, “E Pari Ra.” and the National Anthem sung in Maori concluded a brilliant and much appreciated programme.