MAORI COURT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 10

MAORI COURT

Opening Ceremony Entertaining Event By Telegraph —Press Association WELLINGTON, December 15. The gayest and most entertaining occasion of the Centennial Exhibition yet witnessed was the ceremonial opening of the Maori Court. Some hundreds of natives, attired in korowai and piupiu, participated in traditional songs and dances and ancient ceremonies rarely seen in Wellington. Chiefs and leaders of the Maori people had gathered from all parts of the North Island, and there was also a distinguished Pakeha attendance. In the absence of the Prime Min-

ister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) the acting Native Minister (Hon. F. Langstone) formally declared the building open. A picturesque ceremonial was witnessed by many hundreds of people, the attendance for the day being swelled to 11.503 by the afternoon visitors. The Maoris held a big social and dance in the Assembly Hall last evening. The old time rite of lifting the tapu from the Maori meeting house was carried out during the day by two tohungas of the Arawa Tribe after which Princess Te Puia Hereangi and Mrs Sullivan crossed the threshold, so driving out all evil spirits, and making the building available for common use. Sir Apirana Ngata presented a number of carved Maori articles to distinguished guests, and the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones) presented three radio sets to the Maori Battalion on behalf of Ngati Poneke and a number of carved taniko napkin rings and officers’ carved sticks on behalf of the Arawas.