MASTERPIECE FROM OLD TARANAKI Charles Hale west and north, a far larger proportion of the masterpieces has been lost, leaving only a few magnificent “pare” fragments, sketches and photographs to testify to wonderful carving traditions. A few paintings by d'Urville, Earle and J. T. Stewart are the only records of the powerful Tokerau houses, while in Taranaki we would be little better off but for some very fortunate finds in swamps mainly near Waitara. Waikato fared almost as badly, for apart from Angas drawings little had remained; and yet among the few extant museum pieces from ancient Waikato there is one—now in the Wanganui museum and called the Newman pare, origin unknown—which without doubt is among the greatest woodcarving ever done in New Zealand. These remains of remarkable beauty testify to the extent of our loss. For it is quite clear that in Taranaki. Waikato, Tokerau and elsewhere, there existed in great plenty only a few generations ago, an art that would have been admitted anywhere in the world where it was known, but now this art has joined forever the spirit world it celebrated.