First Maori Entertainers to Go Overseas Our photograph, taken 12 years ago, shows the first Maori variety entertainment group ever to travel overseas to seek its fortune. Known in the first place as ‘The Maori Quartet’, the group went to Australia in 1951, and did well enough to take the big step of going on to London in 1953. They went without any definite contracts, but they found work right away. This included a period of nine weeks for Walt Disney's production ‘The Seekers’; and only three months after their arrival, they took part in a Royal Command Performance at London's Coliseum. Later they toured many countries in Europe, staying together as a group until 1956, when they parted to go their various ways. Henare Gilbert, who is standing on the right in the photo, came home last year with his German wife and children; the June 1962 issue of ‘Te Ao Hou’ had an article about Henare and his life in East Berlin. The leader of the original group, Mr Te Waari (Joe) Ward-Holmes (who is holding the guitar in the photograph) was back home a few weeks ago on a flying visit, and he dropped in at ‘Te Ao Hou's’ office to tell us a bit about his recent movements. When the members of the group separated in 1956, Joe Ward-Holmes started work as an agent with a West German entertainment agency. This was very tough and competitive work—‘It was hard at the beginning, like everything else’, Joe told us, ‘but it was much harder because I didn't know my way round the country’. But he preserved, worked hard, and succeeded in competing with German agents in their own territory. He did a lot of work booking acts for the American armed forces in Germany, and he says that one of the greatest acts he ever had was the Maori Hi-Fives—‘Once they got going they cleaned everything up’. As they were 13 years ago: left to right, Te Manu (Pat) Rawiri, from Ruatahuna; Te Waari (Joe) Ward-Holmes, from Takaka, Makarini Hata, from Opotiki, Henare Gilbert, from Wairoa. He was very pleased to be back in New Zealand, he said—‘I love to be back to see my relatives’. But he was not staying very long; in a couple of weeks he was due to fly to America, and he hopes to set up as an agent there. We asked Joe if he noticed many changes in New Zealand after having been away for so long. He got a bit reticent at this point, but we were left with the impression that he did seem to feel that there were surprisingly few changes in the place in the last dozen years, and that Maoris and pakehas were possibly taking things pretty easy on the whole. He changed the subject fairly smartly though, and started telling us about his Danish fiancee. She is a dancer, and very talented, he says. He thinks that with the right management she has a good chance of breaking through to the big time, and could be a great success in America. This is one reason why he is moving on to the States. He is meeting his finance in New York, and they will be getting married there. Then he will concentrate most of his efforts on promoting her as a dancer. ‘We'll see what we will see’, he says.