NOTED CHIEF PASSES.

Shannon News, 8 February 1929, Page 1

NOTED CHIEF PASSES.

OLD TARANAKI RANGITIRA. MAKER-OP ZANE GREY'S LINE. Poi Tutu, the .revered Taranaki rangitiva, died last Tuesday at his home at Normanby, so long hidden from the public gaze by the tall sevenfoot fence that surrounds it.

Poi was nearly 80 years of age. Possessing the dignity of his race at its best, he was greatly respected by his tribesmen, and was considered a, wise man among them. He was strong and straight, quick and supple, in spite of his grey looks;. The trousers of the pakeiia he never wore in all his, life. Ifis tnighs were always girt either with .loin cloths like Highland kilts, or with his piu piu of flax, A pakeha pipe and tobacco were among the few condescensions to European custom he \v,as known to make.

The deceased was a rangitira of the Ngati R-ua'mti tribe, and to him were known many ancient rites and smrets of the tohungas. He had an important (historic associations with Taranaki, says the Taranaki News. He was one of the local Maoris who was taken to Dunedin and detained there •in. captivity during the troublous times preceding the land confiscation. in Taranaki. Right up to his death he lemembered those times quite well.

With Poi's demise there have-died arts and crafts once second nature to his race. Only recently when a visitor saw him at his home, he was weaving flax fibres with rare artistry into the strongest and toughest Ashing line for mako sharks and swordfish that Mr Zane Grey has ever trailed. Poi was very busy then, but he showed the pakehas some of the secrets of flax working, a 3 practised by many generations of his ancestors. With eyes shining and lips smiling, and emitting an occasional puff of tobacco smoke to relieve the picture, the Maori selected several fine strands of creamy flax fibre from a bundle. Horny Lands but lithe fingers rolled the several fibres, pressed closely upon Poi's bare ealf. He rolled them like a housewife rolling dough, until the several fibres were united into one strand, round and symmetrical. The smile increased and the puffs of smoke were emitted more frequently. A flax leaf was only one yard long. A fishing line needed to be 200 yards. How did the Maori join the ends? The strands were fitted into and between the loose ends. The weaveroffered the line for the pakehas' scrutiny. ' Where had the line been joined'. Poi smiled- No one could distinguish. Mr Zane Grey has that line now. It has caught and held many sharks, swordfish, and other denizens of the sea. It wa.i the best line Zane Grey has ever had. Now Poi Tutu, the maker, is dead. It was the last linehe made and no one living, it is considered, can make a line like that one. The art is dead with Poi Tutu