ROTORUA MAORI ENTERTAINERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9154, 29 July 1908, Page 5

ROTORUA MAORI ENTERTAINERS.

Reports from all parts of New Zealand speak in the highest praise of the Rotorua Maori Entertainers, a clever company of singera, dancers, and exponents of true Maori life, who are at present touring New Zealand under the direction of the Rev. F. A. Bennett, with the commendable object of raising funds in aid of Maori Mission throughout the Dominion. A contemporary says:— "AH sections of the press agree that such an excellent entertainment has never been presented in New Zealand. Every member of the company has been carefully and assiduously trained for his or her part; everyone is a worker, and of the thirty people comprising the company, there is not a "passenger" among them.'' The musical director, Mr F. M. Lyons, himself an experienced musician from Adelaide, is said to have achieved marvellous results with his choir, and produces effects which none can realise who have not heard them. There are several residents of Masterton who fnve heard them, and their verdict endorses that written by the best critics in the newspapers —"They are the best ever heard in New Zealand." It must be highly gratifying to Mr Bennett and those associated with him to have succeeded in drawing such crowded and enthusiastic audiences in every town where they have appeared, and it is to be hoped that a substantial surplus will be available for distribution among the Maori Missions throughout New Zealand. The clever pictures of Maori every day life, their games and pastimes, and the fascinating pois and canoe paddling by the girls is interesting and instructive.