DEAR KINDLING
(Special to the 'Evening Post")
WANGANUI, January 2
The extraordinary ignorance and indifference shown by many pakehas to old Maori culture was revealed recently at the Alexander Museum at Wanganui. A well-dressed, apparently prosperous farmer, gazed at some of the carvings. "Why ever do you people collect that stuff?" he asked. "Why, we pulled down a lot of that sort of carving recently, and boiled the billy with it." Then the sad story was revealed of an old and deserted whare whakairo, way in the back country of i Wanganui. The new owners knew nothing of its existence until when mustering they came across it, and then forgot all about it. Then it so happened that district decided to make a rough golf course, and the old whare was right in a fairway, so it was pulled down and sledged back to the new little golf house—and the old carvings boiled the billy during the whole of last winter! The teller of the story was very downcast when he found that the museums of the world place a solid cash value on such things. I
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19390104.2.21
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 5
Word Count
187DEAR KINDLING Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 5
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