MAORI LOYALTY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 179, 24 April 1920, Page 8

MAORI LOYALTY

" WELCOME TO AOTEAROA!" POETICAL ADDRESS FROM NATIVE RACE ' One of tho features in the proceedings attendant upon tho Prince's. visit to Rotorua next week will be tho presentation to His Royal Highness of a loyal address from the Maori race.' The address itself, which is a v-sry fine product of the illuminator's handicraft, was executed by Air. W. R. Bock, of Wellington. lie has enclosed the lettering in a rich red-brown border, t.6fl design being a reproduction of traditional Maori carvings, with the threefingered god appearing frequently among ths intertwining scroll-work. Inserted in this border are dainty little watercolours of Mount Egnwnt, Huka Kails the Wairoa Geyser, and Lake Taupo. The address is surrounded by a strikingly handsome frame of Native-carved totnra, the tone or shade of which is in nice harmony with that of the illuminated border of the address. The frame (which is six inches in breadth) shows that not yet has the Maori lost his cunning in the carver's art. S The text of tho address is as follows;— "Haer'o Mai eTe Kotuku Rerenga - Tahi." Te Manuhiri- Tuarangi, "To His Royal Htghhsss, Edward, Prince of Wales,— "Ye who lie in the dark chambers of Death, Come forth and hearken! Ye, win sleep the long last sleep, Arise! Stand forth, and give welcome, for 10, the First-born of the'line draws near. Eldest of him, .whose face ye saw on this twice- honoured ground. "Son! Lord! Welcome!. Majesty! Return once more, following the way your father trod. Least among the peonies that acclaim his 'mana,' we give .place to none in service apd loyalty, arid thus wo srreet thee. "Welcome to these, . the furthest Isle* of the Southern Seas! ■ Welcome to Aotearoa! Welcome to To Waipounamu! Our hearts are full of gladness. "Come in the glory of Victory. Once more the bonds that knit the Empire in ono allegiance have held true. "Your father oame to us after a war that added, a bright Jewel, the Diamond of Africa, to the Imperial Crown. Yon come, a, Soldier Prince, the embodiment of'a greater victory, won over tho forces of. oppression and I lawlessness. The World has been saved for freedonu wherein the peoples great and small may grow side by side without fear. "Bring -with you memories of our beloved dead. They live again, who 6trov& with you on the fields of Tu in many lands beyond the Seas. Your presenco there endeared you to the hearts of Mir Warriors. -Your brief sojourn here will soften: the sorrows of those whose dear ones have followed the setting sun._ "Royal son of an illustrious lints, lvingthat is to' be, we are proud that you should carry on the traditions of your Raco and House. For it is .meet that those who sit on high should turn an equal face to humble as to mighty. Walk therefore among your peoples, sure of their hearts, fostering therein the love they bore Queen Victoria/and those who came after her. . . "Welcome and farewell! . Return in peace without' missiving, bearing to His Majesty the King; and 1 to Her Majesty the Queen, the renewal of the Oath wo swore to them on this ground a generation aso, an Oath rooted in the Treaty of Waitangi, thrice hallowed by time and manifold trials. Tho Maori people will be true till death, and so, farewell I"