A GENUINE TE KOOTI VIOLIN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2630, 27 November 1915, Page 14

A GENUINE TE KOOTI VIOLIN

j PRESENTED TO A WELLINGTON ' [ RESIDENT. • , | Mr. James Williamson, of Wadestown, has, during his spare time, built a number of violins that have gained j honours at the Franco-British Exhibi-! tion, the Ailglo-Japanese Exhibition, and more recently at tho San Francsco Exposition. One of th© violins sent to the latter exhibition is of .special interest, not only ' because of its excellent workmanship and tone,, but because the front of it' is made .out of a pieoo of timber that formerly was a post in the whare occupied by the notorious Maori rebel He' Iflooti, in the Rotorua , district, at a time when a price wa6 placed on his head, and he'was being hunted by, the'authorities because of uio leading part he took in tlie Poverty Bay massacre'and other outrages oni sottlers. This violiji has now been returned to . Mr. Williamson from the exhibition, and'lie liae'decided that because of it's association with Maori history it should he in the possession of a family to_ be specially interested in matters ;relating to the Maori'race. Ho has therefore presented this, beautiful and valuable instrument to Mr. F. S. Pope, on behalf of, the family of tho late Mr. J. H. Pope, • who was for so many years tho organisms; inspector of Maori schools, and is by many of the older Maoris regarded as tho true^saviour of tho race.'his work in connection with tlie building ur> of tho Native schools system having been oiw> of tlje greatest factors in arresting the decline in numbers of the Maori population. Mentioning the matter to a reporter, Mt. F- S. Pope stated that his family deeply annreointod the honour paid to them by Mr. Williamson, and remarked that the violin would always lw cherished by thorn, both a.s a tributo ! to thpir father's memory and on acoount; of its liistorical associations wltii the Maori people.