PLACES AND THINGS A Rotorua carpenter and Maori carver, Mr Hone Te Kauru Taiapa was made a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The father of six children, the eldest two married and the youngest aged nine years, Mr Taiapa has lived in Rotorua for 19 years. While working on his many splendid meeting houses—he and his brother Pine have worked on over 40 of them—Hone Taiapa has trained hundreds of carvers. The two brothers have been most prolific producers of carvers. The two brothers have been most prolific producers of carved houses during the last 30 years. Born at Tikitiki on the East Coast in 1912, Hone Taiapa has been carving since he was a boy. One of his more recent works was the meeting-house in Waihi, and in Rotorua, he was responsible for the beautiful carving in the Rotorua Boys' High School Assembly Hall. At present, he is working on the Cathedral in Napier. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

MAORI PA TO BE RESTORED The Papatoetoe Borough Council will try to restore to their original state Maori earthworks, believed to be more than 150 years old, at the back of Papatoetoe Cemetery. The decision was taken after considering a report from Mr A. E. Tonson, a councillor and member of the National Historic Places Trust. Mr Tonson said that the earthworks were on a peninsula at the confluence of two streams in the upper reaches of the Waokauri Creek. It had been reported that a pa was situated at this spot. The earthworks were surmounted by a palisade, and were in a well-preserved state. They were 130 feet long, six feet high from ground level and 10 feet high from the lowest point of the trench. The width of the mound would be about 18 feet and the total width of the defences about 15 feet. Mr Tonson said it was believed that the pa was abandoned about 1810 after an epidemic had wiped out many of the people. The Maoris used caves as burial places and many years ago, about 300 skeletons were found in a cave in the vicinity of Waokauri Creek. In recent years, a bulldozer had apparently been driven through the fortifications, leaving a 30-foot gap. The council instructed the borough engineer, Mr P. E. Fraser, to take steps to restore the fortifications as nearly as possible to their original state. An effort will be made to have the area fenced off and reserved.

MOUNT WELLINGTON Work Has Been in progress on the processing and classification of material found during archaeological digging on the top of Mount Wellington, reported Mr J. Golson, lecturer in history at the University of Auckland. Mr Golson directed the work, which was carried out by members of the Auckland University Archaeological Society. Only six or seven artifacts were found on the site, but it had yielded large quantities of shells and other material that would produce a great deal of information on the methods of subsistence of the early Maoris in the Auckland area, Mr Golson said. No more digging would be carried out by the society until the summer, said Mr Golson. The field work on Mount Wellington was now completed, and some samples of charcoal would be sent to the Nuclear Science Institute at Gracefield for radio-carbon dating. Mr Golson will leave New Zealand next February to take up a research position with the department of anthropology in the Australian National University at Canberra. He will be responsible for the organisation of the archaeological branch of the research school at Canberra. ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

PLEA OF MAORI ELDER In Commenting on a statement made by the Mayor of Tauranga on the Maori problems in his borough Mr P. H. Leonard, a noted elder of the Maori race, said recently: “It seems that a lot of people think we are not deeply conscious of the problems facing our people at present. We are deeply conscious of those problems. I was born in a raupo hut. Now I am 59 years of age and have the honour to be the Deputy-Mayor of Rotorua. The next ten years will see great advances in the Maori people. By then, all the grandparents and parents will have had a secondary school education. What I do not like is collective judgment. I have Maori and Pakeha blood. Many times I have been ashamed of my pakeha blod. Many times I have been ashamed of my Maori blood. The pakeha people too often practice a superiority complex to give the Maori people an inferiority complex. All I ask is your helping hand.” ⋆ ⋆ ⋆