ful of soil removed by the diggers. The front of the hole would have sloped outward at the top, and the back of the hole protected by a lining of heavy saplings to prevent the mighty butt from gouging into it. A gigantic frame work, or staging or gantry would have been erected and over this would have been thrown a rope of twisted flax. Hundreds of men would have hauled and pushed, and pulled and struggled until finally the enormous tree would be firmly erect in its hole. As it was the storehouse of a person of such eminence it would, of course have been given a name. “Rakau Tamatea Reke” was the name given, in honour of that Tamatea Toi, great ancestress of the whole Wahineiti. In due course a small carved receptacle, of the type we have come to know as a pataka would have been made, richly carved, and placed in position at the top of the pole storehouse some twenty feet or more above ground-level, and if old traditions are to be believed above fly level too. The food store would then become a ‘timanga’ or ‘komanga’ and would then be thickly hung with food as long as Hinematioro's mana persisted. It would have been standing there for some 17 or 20 years when a strange ship would sail into the bay of Uawa, which we now know as Tolaga Bay. This ship would have been commanded by a young naval lieutenant, named James Cook whom we remember as having become a collier's apprentice some 18 years before. Time went on, Hinematioro married and had children. These children in turn had children, and of them was Te Kani a Takirau, the greatest chief of the East Coast, who was invited to be the Maori king. Within the two generations between Hinematioro and Tekaniatakirau, many things happened. The Ngapuhi raided from far off Bay of Islands killing hundreds of East Coast people and stacking the racking ovens with their flesh as prelude to many a cannibal feast. Then came other pakehas, the whalers and the traders. Then the missionaries and the old ways of warfare, slavery and cannibalism gradually passed away. With them passed Hinematioro, lost, as an old old woman, in the welter of wars between the tribes. But the tree remained and it saw all things. It saw the coming of Te Kooti, and the passing of the Hauhaus. It saw the beginnings of pakeha settlement and the spread of prosperity for both races. It too, though cherished by the tribe, felt the keen appetite of the passing years. Many times its base rotted in the ground, but each time it fell it was re-erected, a litle shorter than before. Somewhere between the time it saw Maori volunteers depart to fight for the Great white Queen in the Boer War, and the time the first world war started, it was removed to Whangara. Here again it was erected. It saw the men of the first Maori battalion come back from Hitler's war. But during these years its deterioration increased and it was recently decided by the Whangara tribal committee to transfer it from its outdoor position on the grounds of the Whiterea Marae, to the Gisborne Museum. Here it will be preserved and erected in a suitable display. It will continue to belong to Ngati Konohe but a wider circle of people will be able to see this famous relic, the only one of its kind, which has witnessed over a thousand years of history here on the East Coast, and may exist to see another thousand.

Ngati Poneke Comes of Age The Ngati Poneke Association will celebrate its twenty-first birthday during Queen's birthday weekend next year. There will be an announcement over the radio later, but all those who were associated with the club in former days will be especially welcome. In 1957 it will be twenty-one years from the date when Sir Apirana Ngata and Kingi Tahiwi set up the Association as we now know it as part of an effort to build the carved house at Waitara. However, Te Ao Hou is told that before 1936 there existed a Ngati Poneke Organization which was not mentioned in the article we published about Ngati Poneke in our issue 12. We must apologise for this omission; the full story as told by Mr Arapeta Awatere is that on 29th March 1929 a group of people in Wellington formed an independent organization for welfare and relief work. This group had previously been part of a Maori group in the Hutt Valley, set up for the same purpose, but from 1929 they operated independently and called themselves the Ngati Poneke club. They put in money each week to be used by their members when in need, they operated a soup kitchen which was of great importance for city Maoris during the depression and they collected food from beaches near to Wellington to keep this kitchen going. In 1935, some members of this group formed a concert party which soon had a membership of eighty and trained and performed in a hired hall. In 1936, the building of the Waitara house and the interest of Sir Apirana Ngata and others gave the association the form in which we now know it. (See Te Ao Hou, issue 12). The Ngati Poneke Club is trying to make a full register of old members, dating from 1929. Information from anyone who was connected with the club at any stage would be warmly appreciated. The birthday celebrations will be planned to appeal both to old and young. There will be Maori dancing, discussions on the past and future of Ngati Poneke, and on general Maori subjects; and there will also be some educational activities.