just as keen as the girls to form a social and cultural group. Also, as a result of the evening, the main body of the executive was formed. The young people now meet regularly at the Y.W.C.A. and at the Academy of Elegance. The principal of the Academy, Mrs P. Wilson, who lectured at the charm school, offered free tuition to several members of the original class. With the combined enthusiasm of the young people and wise guidance of the sponsors, there is no reason why a very successful Maori cultural organisation should not be formed at Auckland.

Reunion Planned A reunion to honour the famous chief Patuone is to be held from 29 December to 2 January. Patuone, one of the first chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, befriended and protected many early pioneers and missionaries.

Mill Hill Fathers In a magazine marking the centenary of St Joseph's Missionary Society, is the story of the Mill Hill Fathers in New Zealand. It describes the history of the Maori Mission since the arrival of the first two missionaries in December 1886.

An Appreciation of THE SPIRAL TATTOO by Alan Armstrong A full scale production for broadcasting of a Maori legend is something of an occasion. Listeners to National Stations on 15 August heard an hour and a half long production of The Spiral Tattoo. This was a dramatization by Mrs Adele Schafer of Wellington of the ancient legend of Mataora and Niwareka — which appeared in both Maori and English in Issue Number 50 of Te Ao Hou. The Spiral Tattoo tells of Mata-o-ra who is married to Niwareka, one of the Turehu or fairy folk. Mataora quarrels with his wife and strikes her and she leaves him to return to her old homeland in the Underworld. Mataora follows her there and after many adventures he finds her and regains her affections. During the course of his search, Mataora is ridiculed by the denizens of the Underworld because his facial designs are only painted on. He begs the local people to let his manhood be tested by having himself tattoed in the same manner as they. As a result he learns the art of tattoing, an art which he is later to pass on to the whole of the Maori people. Eventually the two lovers return to the world of men on the back of the sacred bird, Korotangi. In the June 1965 issue of Te Ao Hou there was an interesting article by Mrs Schafer concerning the underlying meaning of the legend of Mataora and Niwareka and theorising on its affinity with some of the mythology of India and South East Asia. Mrs Schafer believes that Maori and the other Polynesian languages have developed from Sanscrit, the ancient language of India, and in her private studies she has carried out painstaking documentation of this theory. In her article in Te Ao Hou she points out that in Sanscrit ‘nivara’ means ‘rice’. In the Maori legend, the name Niwareka could be derived from ‘nivara’. If this were so it could be evidence of an interesting link with the mythologies of many countries which the tale of a person journeying to the Underworld and coming back again with the aid of someone who loves them, is a symbol for the grain which goes away into the earth by the act of planting and which in the Spring shoots forth again. Probably the best known of the many legends of descent into, and resurrection from, the Underworld is the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Thus Adele Schafer has subtitled her play for radio An Orpheus Legend of the Maori. Adele Schafer was born in Vienna in 1905 and came to this country in 1939 as a refugee from Nazism. Since then she has made a study of Maori mythology and dedicated herself to bringing Maori legend to life by dramatising it in a way which makes it meaningful in this modern day and age. The Spiral Tattoo was originally conceived as a three act play for the stage and later adapted and condensed somewhat for broadcasting. The N.Z.B.C. has also bought another of Mrs Schafer's plays but no production plans for it have yet been announced. The Spiral Tattoo was produced in the Corporation's Wellington studios by Antony