THE PREMIER AND THE MAORIS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2250, 23 July 1908, Page 2

THE PREMIER AND THE MAORIS.

(Speciial to “Times.”)

UNIQUE GATHERING AT AAVARUA HOUSE.

WELLINGTON, July 22. A most unique .and interesting function, says the lady correspondent of the “Evening Post.” took place at.Awarua House yesterday afternoon when Sir Joseph and Lady AVard were “At Home” to the Maoris visiting Wellington. A number of peojjle wero invited to .meet them, and a most delightful afternoon was spent, without one dull moment from the cheering welcome to the lingering farewell, Sp many. Maoris accepted the invitation that as we watched them trooping up Hill Street we wondered where they would all be put, but the Premier’s house is as hospitable as its owner, and in the winding corridors and fine .rooms there was space for all. (Spring flowers there were, oven primroses, on the tea table, and crimson camellias were in bowls on the tables in the drawing room. In a cabinet were to be seen the magnificent presentations Sir Joseph has received from time to time, including the splendid gold casket, -a- globe with couchant lions, which held the freedom of the City of London. A bevy of greyshirted and knicker-bockered boys from Croydon School deftly helped to pass round the refreshments, and one Maori visitor imagined they were all children of the house. Among the guests were some old chiefs who had fought against the white man, but the Maori can adapt, himself so admirably to his surroundings that the Premier’s drawing room might have been their ancestral whares. A charming group was that 0 f a pretty darkeyed mother with a sleeping baby, and a handsome grey-liaired grandwho hovered near the pair with proud concern, taking -an expert hand as nurse in his turn. A little programme in which Miss AVard, Mr. T. E. Tait, Miss Stirling, and a Maori friend, Mrs. Donne, Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Malcolm Ross, and Mr. Ba-ume took part was listened to with rapt attention and, iu return, the visitors, with the cheery and vivacious Wikitaria Kemp as prim a donna, gave so effective a baka of welcome that it was encored. A feature of the entertainment was the photographing. All the guests trooped out on the steps, and after infinite preparations, the camera did its work, the man in charge, with an anxious air that was quite warranted by the difficulty of his task, entreating all to “do your best,” an injunction that caused unbecomingly broad smiles. Sir -Robert Stout arrived just in time to mike a decorative unit in the mass of people, and just as the photographer was going to “press the button,” a call from Sir Joseph Ward, “here’s another man coming,” made him stop. Up the avenue walked a parcels-laden grocer’s man, who .looked most embarrassed as he passed between the camera and the laughing crowd.