bane. If the team does well on tour, a match against New South Wales at Sydney may also be arranged. * * * Friends of Joseph Kumeroa will be pleased to learn that he is now a student at the Royal College of Music, London, where he commenced his studies early last month, having done well in his entrance examination. He is studying the piano with Mr Arthur Alexander, accompaniment with Mr Stubbs, and theoretical subjects with Mr Churchill. He also attends lectures on musical appreciation, and is a member of a choir. Altogether he appears to be leading a very busy life. At the time of writing he had not thought the English winter unbearably cold, although he found his first taste of “smog” an unpleasant experience. Maori University Scholarships have gone up in value this year. They are now worth £50 per year for board, plus college, lecture and examination fees, and a bursary allowance of £40, plus free passage to and from university once a year. Previously, board allowance was £40 and bursary £30. Six are awarded every year for which applications close 31st October. * * * A pamphlet on ‘Some Educational Facilities for the Maori People’ was published by the Maori Purpose Fund Board in November last year. It gives full details on accommodation, scholarships and bursaries available to young Maoris in search of education and is available free of charge from P.O. Box 2390, Wellington.

MAKING FIRE AND COOKING FOOD by W. J. Phillipps Fire represents heat, warmth, and even life to man. To generate fire, the Maori used to use a fire plough—that is, a pointed stick (hika) was rubbed in a groove formed in a lower piece of wood (kauahi) until smoke, then a red spark, and then fire, appeared in the abraded dust at the lower end of the groove. The wood of three trees was suitable for this purpose—the makomako, kaikomako, and the mahoe. In and around bush areas of the North Island it was customary to collect a dried bracken fungus (Polyporus) which, when dried, ignites rapidly, and it was on this that the tiny mound of glowing fire in the kauahi was usually tipped. In districts remote from bush areas, dried moss and leaves were used for this purpose. Looking down on the old ritual oven after the manner explained by Wiremu Te Aweawe (W. Larkins), Rangiotu. (Stella Bagnal del.) Little has been recorded of this bracken fungus and its importance in the generation of fire and in carrying fire during wet weather. Dr G. B. Cone informs us that she has spoken to an old pakeha bushman who has used it in the Thames district where it was known as “punk” to the early settlers, who learned of its use from the Maoris. Punk burns very slowly and persistently. It can be put out only when smothered. Putawai and putawa are names which have been supplied for this fungus around Gisborne while Mr Arthur Beauchamp gives the Waikaremoana name as popotawai. Elsdon Best tells us that the particular punk used to carry live fire “was the puku tawai found growing on beech trees; that found on tawa trees is useless for the purpose.” Another material of slow combustion used to carry fire was a dried stem of the flowering stalks of New Zealand flax. At night again to quote Best “torches used in travelling were made of bark, dried leaves of cordyline or resinous wood such as mapara.” The earth oven is usually a more or less circular pit some 3 to 4 ft. in diameter and up to 18 inches deep. The oven is usually termed umu by the older people but the modern generation is more accustomed to the term hangi. However, these names vary in different parts of New Zealand. Quantities of wood large and small are placed in the pit and piled up to at least ground level. Over the large top-logs are piled specially selected stones termed taikowhatu or para ngahu—stones which will not easily crack with the heat. As the wood of the oven burns, the stones drop to the floor of the pit. Embers are raked aside, the stones levelled out, some being removed to place on top of the food when it is arranged in the pit.