IN THE NEWS

Te Ao Hou, July 1955, Page 52

IN THE NEWS Plans to have the famous Henare Potae carved meeting house returned to the East Coast district after an absence of eighty years in the South Island have come a big step closer to realisation. The house, named Hauteananui-o-te-Tangaroa, was carved by Hone Haahu, one of the last great East Coast carvers. The Canterbury Museum, the present owner of the house, has generously offered to sell to the Gisborne Art Society for £250—the same price they paid for it 81 years ago. The Maori committee, of the Gisborne Museum chaired by Mr Rongo Halbert, has undertaken to raise the money. So far £700 has come to hand, but total costs will be over £1000. * * * ‘It is heartening to see Maoris, especially training college students, attempting to combine a theoretical interest in anthropology with a practical desire to help their people,’ said Mr Andrew P. Vayda, on his departure for the U.S. He had spent a year in New Zealand gathering material for a doctor's thesis on Polynesian warfare for Columbia University, New York. In Mr Vayda's view, the Maori can interpret his own history much better than the pakeha. He can discover what elements in his cultural heritage could be made to help him in his adjustments to the future. More easily than the pakeha, the Maori can recognize Maori attitudes persisting from former times. * * * Mr Te Tau, a farmer, of Norsewood, became the first Maori to be honoured by the award of the N.Z.R.S.A. certificate of merit and gold star badge—a high honour granted by the New Zealand Returned Services' Association in recognition of outstanding services rendered by its members. Mr Te Tau has been a driving force in the Norsewood sub-association for the past 28 years. * * * Arrangements have now been made for maintenance in perpetuity of the Sir Peter Buck memorial at Okoki, according to an announcement by Mr T. T. Ropiha. A sum of £400, part of the surplus from the memorial appeal, will be invested and the income used for maintaining the national memorial and the area adjacent, by arrangement with the Lands and Survey Department. * * * The meeting of Maori first world war veterans at Kaitupeka Pa, Taumarunui, last March was a most successful event. It was decided to hold similar meetings every year in future, and to this end an organization named Hoku Whitu a Tu Association was formed. Next year's meeting is to be at Waihi, Tokaanu.