Hospitality on the West Coast

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1952, Page 63

Hospitality on the West Coast On July 13 the team left Motueka for Greymouth by bus, with a stop at Hampden Hotel, Murchison, the scene of the great earthquake in 1929. The journey along the gorges was interesting, and mention was made of the fact that our ancestors must have traversed this route in going to the Pounamu streams on the West Coast. At Greymouth the team was received by the Mayor and the President and other members of the West Coast Rugby Union. A very full programme of entertainment and visits had been arranged at Greymouth, the most thrilling being a visit to the Wallsend coalmine, where the players were each given a miner's lamp and then, by lift, dropped straight down 650 feet to the lower levels of the mine. They then walked three-quarters of a mile under the Buller River to the coal-face, where the miners were working. Visits were made by the team to the convent and High School at Greymouth, to the convent at Hokitika, and to the Kaniere gold dredge.

A Mayoral welcome was also given at Hokitika, and a formal afternoon tea was given to the team by the Hokitika Sub-Union. Ihaia Weepu, on behalf of the Ngaitahu people of the West Coast, presented each member with a piece of greenstone. After the match, which the Maori team won by 30–23, a ball held at Gladstone, in the team's honour, by the West Coast Basketball Association, was greatly enjoyed by all. The journey from Greymouth to Westport along the coastal road with a call to visit the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, was very interesting. The arrival at Westport was an event, as the Mayor and the local Rugby Union had put the Albion Hotel completely at the disposal of the Maori team. Pictures, dances, and an after-midnight house-party at the home of Mr and Mrs W. Craddock, were greatly enjoyed by all. A visit to the open-cast mine, situated high in the hills above Westport, was made even more interesting by the fact that the overseer in charge was the ex-Maori All Black, Alec Swainson. Up to this stage the weather had been perfect, but rain fell that night, and continued until just before the match next day, affecting the brightness of the game and the attendance. It was in this match the Maoris could have been beaten, but the great leadership of Lance Hohaia in the forwards enabled the game to be won by 21 points to 17. Another Sunday journey from Westport, through the Buller Gorge over Tophouse to Blenheim, saw the team nearing its culminating game, and wisely the managers decided to have only light training. The entertainment provided in Marlborough was dear to the boys' hearts. First, there was a visit to the whaling station at Tory Channel, where a whale was towed ashore, and examined by members of the team. As most of the workers at the works were Maoris, a whole boat-load of kinas had been provided, and the boys enjoyed them. After a close game at Blenheim against the Marlborough representatives, which the Maori team won, 14 to 13, a most enjoyable hakari was provided by the Ngatirarua Rangitane and Ngatikoutu tribes at Wairau. The team flew back from Blenheim on Thursday, July 24, in perfect weather. The pilot took the team for a flight over Wellington City before landing at Paraparaumu. The match at Athletic Park on Saturday, July 26, was a climax for a most enjoyable and interesting tour of New Zealand by a Maori team. Wellington's Evening Post, reporting this great event, very fittingly called it a ‘Gala Day for N.Z. Rugby’. A fiction writer, said the Post, could not have devised a more dramatic and exhilarating farewell gesture than this match. The Maori team lost the game by 28–22, but, as the Evening Post pointed out: ‘Nobody cared very much about the 6-point margin, or whichever side it favoured….’