MAORI ENGINEER PLANS MODEL PA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 1

MAORI ENGINEER PLANS MODEL PA

Ml. EDEN FORTIFICATION “MEMORIAL TO THE RACE” An important report in connection with the proposed Mount Eden model Maori pa, will be placed before Monday night’s meeting of the Mount Eden Borough Council. The report has been prepared by Mr. Paora Chamberlain, engineer, of New Plymouth, who recently visited Auckland at his own expense to investigate the position. Mr. Chamberlain, who is a Maori from the Urewera country and who was educated at Cambridge University, has also prepared a series of plans for the information of the council. He has visualised Mount Eden, or the Maunga-Wbau of the original Maori owners, as the fortress was before the time of Captain Cook. “I believe that the re-erection of this fortification must be something more than a place of interest for tourists,” says Mr. Chamberlain. “It should be a memorial to the whole of the Maori people, and regarded as such.”

Mr. Chamberlain is keenly interested in the possibilities of the proposal, which has been enthusiastically sponsored by members of Is Akarana Maori Association. Members of the association will wait on the Mount Eden Borough Council on Monday evening with Mr. Chamberlain’s plans and report. The next step rests wit’* the council, which some time ago referred the subject to the association with the desire for more concrete information as to estimates of costs and other particulars.