GREAT MAORI DISPLAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 107, 8 January 1940, Page 5

GREAT MAORI DISPLAY

FORTHCOMING CENTENNIAL

WHAKATANE'S BIG EFFORT

Details in connection with the Maori pageant and demonstration to be made in Whakatane on March lfitli. the proposed new day for the town's Centennial celebrations wer.j finalised at a representative meeting of Maori delegates comprising the whole of the Matatua district at Run toki yesterday.

The complete programme as submit led by the Maori Sub-Committee was unanimously adopted and it is hoped to make the occasion the finest Maori gathering in the history of the town. There was a definite note of enthusiasm and already special songs, hakas and dances are under way for the purpose of giving first class entertainment of a unique variety. Mr B. S. Barry, the Mayor of Whakatane. who attended with the town clerk, Mr D. V. Saunders, said he welcomed the opportunity of attending. It was most gratifying to note the co-operation which was forthcoming from the Maoris, and he had always maintained that the Centennial should embrace widely representative Maori features as it could not be considered complete without them. Mr Barry promised to personally take the representations from the meeting with the parent committee and to do his best to ensure that tiie slight variations suggested were carried out. In thanking him Mr A. O. Stewart said that it was pleasing to note the willingness to co-operate for the common good between Maori and Pakeha. It showed that the spirit of the old pioneering days when settlers and Maoris lived as neighbours was not dead. The meeting was unanimous in its decision to combine with the Faltcha section of the programme and all present hoped that the result would be worthy of the occasion.