NOVEL IMPORTATION.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 287, 13 May 1875, Page 2

NOVEL IMPORTATION.

By the barque Sunbeam, from London, a rather novel importation for the Native Department, through the Agent-General, has come to hand. The powerful East Coast tribe, the Arawas, have always been loyal to the Queen, and in the native wars lent valuable aid, in the field and otherwise, to bring about submission to Her Majesty and the tranquility of the country. Apparently, they desired to have among them some visible evidence of the powerful but faraway Queen under whose banner they had fought, and accordingly a request was preferred that a bust of Her Majesty should be procured for them, and the Native Minister promised that such a bust should be presented to them. Dr Featherston was communicated with on the subject something like twelve months ago, and he gave the commission to an Italian artist in London, whose name is not mentioned in the correspondence, but who is described as young, talented, and rising in his profession. The instructions were that the bust should be of life-size, but the artist has taken the usual liberty of. improving upon, or at least altering, the idea, and has given Her Majesty somewhat colossal proportions. The bust is carved in wood, apparently beech. It is a copy from one which has been made familiar to the colonists by photographs, and gives a very correct likeness of the Queen. The features are admirably carved, and the likeness is unmistakable. Anyone who has seen Her Majesty cannot but at once perceive the admirable portrait tire artist has achieved. Her Majesty wears small gilded crown, and holds in her hand the sceptre of the realm. The Queen wears the royal collar, and the stars of the orders of the Garter and the Thistle, and other insignia of royalty. These are all well carved. The hands, however, are much too large. It is possible, however, that the artist found some difficulty with his wood, and having succeeded so admirably with the face, both full and in profile, did not care to run the risk of spoiling his work by cutting the hands smaller. There is a happy air of dignity in the countenance, together with the peculiar look of matronly love which distinguishes Her Majesty. The bust is to be forwarded to the Ngafciwhakaue hapu of the Arawa tribe at Ohinemutu—one of the most important branches of the tribe. It will probably be sent North by the Rangatira on her next trip.