A student carving. (photo: john ashton). design is the pataki or notched ridge running parallel to one or more plain ridges. We were shown various types of pataki, such as the tara-tara-o-kai, waharua, whakarare and others. The school uses the pataki with the four-sided notch and calls it tuarakuri.* Tuarakuri (lit. ‘dog's back’) is a Northland term given because of the likeness of the notching to the manner in which the hairs stand up straight on the back of a native dog when it is angry. (Phillipps, Maori Carving for Beginners). Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening the school comes together from 7.30 to 10.30. The soft tapping of mallet on wood resounds through the silent darkness. A woman laughs; a baritone breaks into a crescendo. The instructor's voice is just audible. On one side of the hall the men are carving, on the other the women carry on with the tukutuku work. They too are guided by the Adult Education organization, for with Mr Toka on his visits to Judea comes his wife, who is an acknowledged expert in these crafts. The new meeting house will be sixty feet long and thirty wide. It will be called Ko Atamatea Pokai Whenua after Atamatea, navigator of the Takitimu canoe and a great explorer and adventurer. Mr Vernon Brown, the noted Auckland architect, has helped us without charge by designing the house, which incorporates many modern features such as coupe louvre windows and corrugated fibrolite roofing. Mr Brown also revived an ancient Maori structural idea that had been forgotten of late, although our ancestors knew it. In the old meeting houses, the ridgepole was supported chiefly by powerful centre posts sunk deep into the ground. In Pakeha days timber flooring was introduced, the centre posts were put on top of the floor, and in this way the task of supporting the ridgepole was chiefly left to the rafters. In the bigger houses rafters had to be supported by ungainly steel girders. In Mr Vernon Brown's design stout centre posts go through the floor deep into the ground. Their strength is enough to hold up the ridgepole. As an added precaution, the lower end of the rafters will be tied to the ground outside the house. Inside there will be no tie-beams, no steel girders. The structure will be simple and stark like that of the pre-pakeha meeting houses. A women's committee was organized to raise funds for the building. They tried every conceivable idea — jumble sales, contributions, dances, tennis tournaments and recently a bring-and-buy raised £150. The money collected will be eligible for a £ for £ government subsidy. A substantial sum is already available. A new era is dawning for the people of Judea pa. They are trying by their great undertaking to restore their lost prestige. Their effort reflects the spirit of love, unity and co-operation and a determination to succeed. This whare nui will stand as a symbol of progress and great achievement, a memorial to the immortals of the seven canoes, and an appropriate meeting place for future generations. Robert Nepia. (photo: john ashton).