FAMOUS CARVER GOES TO REST

Rotorua Morning Post, 29 August 1931, Page 4

FAMOUS CARVER GOES TO REST

GREAT ARAWA CRAFTSMAN RECOGNISED AS MASTER CARVER. LATE TENE WAITERE. The waters of Reinga have closed over Tene Waitere, last of the long line of Arawa Maori craftsmen, . or Ngati Terawhae (the carving tribe), wh'o for generatioris have handeid down, from father to son the secrets of the art of Maori carving. Seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death, Tene Waitere, died at the home of his grandaughter, Guide Rangi, of Whakarewarewa, last week. His death removed a man who was an outstanding artist in a craft which is only now beginning to be recognised as such, arid a carver who had done more , perhaps ,than any other man to make the Arawa carvings famous throughout New Zealand and abroad. Many of the most diStinguished visitors who at different times have. passed through Rotorua and Whaka gave him commissions, and to-day specimens of his work are to b'e found all over the world. His Majesty the King, when he visited Rotorua as Duke of York, was presented with orte of Waitere's most notable carvings — a model of the historic Arawa canoe, in which the great ancestor of the carv'er, the high priest Nga Toroi Rangi, of the Arawas, came to New Zealand six centuries ago. When the Prince of Wales visited New Zealand, he was presented with a Maori flag-pole carved by Waitere, while he worked a model of a potaka, or Maori food-house, which was presented to Their Royal Hignesses, the Duke and Duchess of York. All Over New Zealand. Examples of . Waitere's work are to 'be found all over New Zealand, and his assistance and advice as an authority on the design and execution of carvings was on many occasions sou^ht by the School of Maori Arts and Crafts and the Tourist Department, The striking carved shelter for the statue of Queen Yictoria at Ohinemutu is one well-known carving carried out by the old Arawa craftsman while the gateway to the model pa at Whaka, and the famous "carved house," are also classical examples of his work which may be seen near home. Unique pieces of Maori design for interior decorating were also carried out by Waitere — examples are the carving work in the dining room at the Spa Hotel, Taupo, and the massive carved Maori mantelpieces in the Grand Hotel, Auckland, and the Grand Hotel, Rotorua. , Tene Waitere was recognised as a master of his unique craft, not only by the Maoris, whose art he perpetuated, but by the pakeha who admired even if he did not understand. The man was known to many, but his work to many more; "by his work they shall know him" is his most fitting epitaph. By the pakeha, he was commissioned to do special pieces for the Dunedin Exhibition, and for the Maori he carried out the carving of the famous model meeting house at Gisborne — both proofs in their way of the general recognition of his preeminence in the native craft-.

Last Work. His last work, and possibly the one for which he will be best remembered, was, pathetically enough, a memorial for his own daughter, Mrs. Rimupae Kereopa. The aged carver made his last public appearance at the unveiling of that memorial and three weeks later he himself said "haere-ra" on the site of his patient l'abours. He was buried last Sunday at Roto- - iti in the ancient burial ground of his . people, overlooking the waters of the lake and in the heart of the country which his work had done so mueh to make the centre of Maori carving craftsmanship. So closed a long and picturesque life, and so departed a great Maori craftsman to his well-earned rest. Tene Waitere had gone through the terrible nights and days of the Tarawera eruption and was one of the survivors who escaped from the buried village of Wairoa, overwhelmed • by the devastating forces of the mountain. It was then that he. brought his family to live in Rotorua and did the major portion of the. carving work which has earned him a , reputation known far beyond the shores of New Zealand. The Waitere traced his descent through six centuries back to Ngo Toroi Rangi, high priest of the Arawa canoe; a Maori of high descent and standing in his tribe, he had met the notabilities of many lands and had earned, through many years of patient craftsmanship, a reputation which made him a notability himself.