Carved House of Takerau, “Whare Runanga at Waikare, Bay of Islands. Through the courtesy of Mr J. G. Wilson, Netherby, Waipukurau. I have been enabled to have a photograph taken of a painting by J. T. Stewart, based on an original sketch dating from 1857. A number of ftures of interest are worthy of comment. We notice the low sliding door with the relatively large well carved pare above and the inward slanting door posts or whakawal. Similar posts on the window also slope inwards above. There are indications of carving on the tahu end (pane) above the porch; also on the carved slabs (poupou) on the porch walls. The threshold board is absent. Stout wooden pegs fasten the amo to the maihi behind, a feature not hitherto noted, but probably once common. Evidently all rafters were well covered with design, and some ornamentation has been worked into the construction of back wall of the porch. The old custom of Maoris, particularly women, covering the mouth when sitting is well illustrated by the central figure in the group portrayed in front of the building.” (Phillipps) “This pare is undoubtedly old, and is one of eight that have been recovered from a swamp in the Bell Block, near Waitara. It is almost certainly a fragment of a carved house of which all other traces have disappeared. Now in the Dominion Museum, it was first figured by Hamilton in ‘Maori Art’. All figures are ridged longitudinally, the main central figure being very wide across the eyes, the head coming to a peak above. A remarkable variety of detail design exists on this pare, as I have already pointed out in ‘Maori Art’ 1946, pp. 3 and 4. This is one of the finest of all known Taranaki pare.”(Phillipps).