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Te Ao Hou, April 1958, Page 36

Te Kaha carving in the Auckland Museum. (Peter Bane Photograph)

Right: One of the famous Te Kaha carvings, said to be the most beautiful Maori art in existence, and dating from about 1750. Now in the Auckland Museum. (Peter Blanc Photograph) Emerging at Turanga, where you will face The clouds from the south, whence came your doom. So shall your elder and parent hear, Even Te Matorohanga! Rangiuia composed this lament in the early part of last century; the Rawheoro School of which he was then chief priest held its last session in 1836. The Ngaio-tu-ki-Rarotanga (the Ngaio that grew at Rarotonga) was a famous garment supposed to have been brought from across the seas. Tukaki of Te Kaha and Iwirakau of Waiapu hearing of the arts established and flourishing at Uawa (Tolaga Bay) and desiring to acquire the knowledge, brought the cloak as a present to the tohunga. They took with them the Manaia and the Taowaru—i.e. the knowledge of carving, alluded to in the song by the mention of the two most difficult features. The Manaia is featured in the Te Kaha carvings. I have identified the Taowaru as the notched details so prominent in those carvings. Iwirakau established carving throughout the Waiapu-Te Araroa territory. The last artist descended from him was Hone Ngatoto, who died in 1928. He was the last master of the straight blade chisel, with which he executed the finest pakati (chevrons) scrolls and other decorations achieved by the Arawa carvers with much labour and the use of all kinds and shapes of chisels. The Te Kaha carvings are the finest in the Auckland Museum. The Turanga school we all know about and admire exceedingly. We have no later examples of the Te Kaha work than the pataka in the Auckland Museum. We have several examples of the Waiapu carvings there and in Wellington and two very fine carved meeting houses, Forourangi at Waiomatatini and Hinetapora near Ruatoria. The Hinetapora carvers of the Iwirakau School carved Takitimu at Martinborough, a house burnt a few years ago. Gisborne carvings are world famous, and the best extant examples of house carvings are those of the Turanga House in the Dominion Museum. Degeneration of Gisborne types is shown in houses carved by men from Te Arai who followed Te Kooti into the Bay of Plenty and King Country: Te Whai-o-te-Motu at Ruatahuna, Tuhi Pihopa's house at Te Whaiti and Tokonganui-a-noho at Te Kuiti. Degeneration of Ngati-Awa types is seen in Hotunui (Taipari's house in the Auckland Museum) and Ruataupare at Te Teko. Carvings from Mahia and Wairoa show connection with Gisborne, just as Opotiki carvings are related to Whakatane on the one side and Te Kaha on the other. Concluded in our Next Issue

Can the Maori language survive? Readers who have asked themselves this question will be interested to see how an old language still spoken in the mountains of part of Switzerland has been kept alive by the joint efforts of people and government. This article was first suggested by one of our subscribers. Mr K. J. Hesz, who gave us much useful information. This was later supplemented by the Department of Education in Chur, Switzerland, and a private government-assisted organization, the Romantsch League. It will be seen that these people, although geographically far removed from us, are facing problems very similar to our own. MANY peoples in the world are very similarly placed to the Maori. Forming a small part of a larger nation they have to fit in and yet long to hold on to their own culture and language. One such people are the Rhaetians or Romantsch of Switzerland, mostly farming people living in the secluded valleys of the mountainous Grisons County. It is here that some of the world's finest tourist resorts and skiing grounds are found. The people are of an ancient race, the original inhabitants of Switzerland whose language, Romantsch is of all living tongues the closest to Latin. The Rhaetian race was conquered by the Romans fifteen years before the birth of Jesus Christ. By the time the Roman Empire collapsed these Rhaetians had for centuries supplied one of the most famous legions and were thoroughly Romanized. According to tradition, soldiers of the Rhaetian Legion crucified Jesus Christ in Jerusalem; as a conciliatory reparation for that crime, the Rhaetians supply the Papal Swiss Guard with new members. Later the Germans began to encroach on their territory, occupying the more accessible parts of Switzerland. The Rhaetians lost their identity, with the exception of those in the mountain fastnesses of Grisons in the South. These alone continued to speak the old Roman tongue, which they called Romantsch. Today, of 137,000 inhabitants in the Grisons County, 50,000 are classified as Romantsch. For centuries, the Swiss central government did not take any notice of the ‘peasant language’ of these isolated mountain dwellers, while German, French and Italian were recognised as the national languages.