Art. 45.—Maori Plaited Basketry and Plaitwork: I, Mats, Baskets, and Burden-carriers. By Te Rangi Hiroa (P. H. Buck), D.S.O., M.D. [Read before the Auckland Institute, 19th December, 1921; received by Editor, 21st December, 1921; issued separately, 18th June, 1923.] Plates 78–82. Introductory. We owe a duty to the Maori race to gather and put on record such remnants of information of their ancient arts and crafts as still survive the deluge of civilization. To Hamilton, Brigham, and others we owe much for the illustrations and general description in their works, but more data as to technique is required to supplement their labours. For the comparative study of the Polynesians and their neighbours, the technique used in the beginning, finish, and strokes used in the body of the articles must supply valuable information and be of high scientific importance. From a sentimental point of view, it may interest future generations of the ultimate mixed race of New Zealand to look up the methods and doings of their Maori ancestors. From an economic standpoint, Maori baskets and mats are so easy to make, and the material so accessible and inexpensive, that dwellers remote from towns, and campers by coast and forest, might well derive benefit from the study of the technique of the Maori art of plaiting. The data from which this article is compiled was gathered from the Ngati-Pamoana subtribe of the Whanganui Tribe, who dwell at Koriniti and Operiki, on the Whanganui River. It was originally intended to make it the basis of a comprehensive article on basketry and plaiting throughout New Zealand. So many variations occur amongst the different tribes, however, that it was considered advisable to postpone their consideration until more exhaustive inquiries have been made. The variation in names and types is shown by the fact that Williams's Maori Dictionary contains over seventy names for kinds of baskets alone. Basketry and matting are made amongst the Maoris by hand from strips of unspun material. The small baskets with coloured designs, made from prepared flax-fibre twisted on the thigh into warp elements, are a modern innovation, derived from the art of weaving cloaks, and do not belong to this article. “Basketry,” to quote from Notes and Queries on Anthropology, “may be woven (where there are two elements), or plaited (where all the elements start and end parallel, sometimes confused with weaving), or coiled.” Following the classification adopted by the Bureau of American Ethnology, basketry is divided into checker-work, twilled work, wicker-work, wrapped work, and twined work. Wicker, wrapped, and twined work are done on stiffer material, and may be seen in the various fish-traps for eels and inanga (adult of Galaxias attenuatus and fry of G. brevipinnis). They are not dealt with here. Coiled basketry, which is really sewing, is done by sewing or whipping together, in a flat or ascending coil, a continuous foundation of rod, splint, shredded fibre, or grass, or by interlocking stitches without foundation. This class of work was not done by the Maori.