A MAORI VALHALLA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2581, 17 May 1923, Page 1

A MAORI VALHALLA.

DUG UP BY CAPTAIN DONNE.

FOR. THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION.

Awe-inspiring if not actually terrifying will ho the .appearance of tho Maori wlinre to lie erected at Wembley as part of the New Zealand exhibit at next year's British Empire Exhibition. One can imagine the small English children “up from the country” to the Exhibition running affrighted to their mothers on a first glimpse of the huge tattooed faces of the old Maori chiefs. Will the. fathers and mothers be roused from their bucolic calm to find out what this strange building is and what it stands for in the history of the British race?

This Maori house, still lying in the ervpt of the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington since forty years ago it was presented to the English Government by the New Zealand Government, was recalled from its obscurity by Captain Donne ---in the role of Lord Carnarvon—and brought into the light of day. Long associated with successful New Zealand Exhibitions, he knew that this ancient Maori monument was in London somewhere, and searching bis tenacious memory he remembered its presentation to the South Kensington Museum authorities. The rest was easy—to get the

-aid authorities to make search for Ibis valuable ethnological memorial which they had not seen fit to show in the public part of the Museum. FTo knew that there was available no -ucli extraordinarily fine specimen if its kind, and its erection at Wembley would enable the New Zealand exhibits to show in one fine coup il’oeil to the millions who will visit. Ihe Imperial Exhibition one of the picturesque episodes of New Zenand history. For, while this wharo is a veri-

table Valhalla, a “hall of the'slain,” yet ii is a memento of peace in that it was built to commemorate tbe reconciliation of the Ngatiawa and Urcwera, and so, very fitting, when we arc in a world bent on returning as quickly as may be to the arts of peace —and-that is the aim And object of the British Empire Exhibi-

This whim* was exhibited at the great Sydney Exhibition. It is the carved house Matatua, the idea of which originated with Hohaia Mataleliokia, chief of the Ngatipukeko. He consulted Wei pi ha Apanui, other chiefs, and Major Hair. For two years nothing was actually done, bul eventually the whole tribe took tbe matter up and decided to build a house in honour of their ancestors, and also, as we have stated, in memory of the reconciliation of the Ngatiawa and the Urcwera. Completed in .1874, it was opened in 1875 by (be late Sir Donald McLean in the presence of large numbers of Maoris and Europeans.

Supreme among the ancestors figuring in his national memorial is Hie image of Toi, from whom they jpmng, and it naturally' adorns the middle post. The ancestors of all the different tribes of Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay'figure too, in the carven images. It contains, too, the ligures of Te Xgararu and Te Mailararainie, Wepilia Apanuis graudlather and of .Mr Kaloon, murdered a! Whakatane. On the ridge pole is < ai ved the god Awatope, and on the foot hoard across the porch is carved Oniawa, ancestor ol the Ngaiiawa, the carving having been done hv a Fijian in honour of King Thakolmu. The house will indeed he a veritable Pantheon of the Maori race lor all to see, history embalmed and solidified in tlie wooden figures, the names and history of which would he an epitome of the history ol Poly,.,.sia and that far llawaiki from v. hid, the .Maori race made their ,1c re.it oil the shores of their pi csent . oiintry, Down in the crypt of the Museum Major Dausey is at work restoring it to iis glory. The timbers have suffered through their loug neglect, and every part of it has to be examined to check further deterioration. The work, we understand, may be completed next week, when the High Commissioner and Lady Allen will visit it prior to its transportation and to inspect the results of Major Dansey’s thorough measures for its restoration.