Explanatory Notes:

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1952, Page 45

Explanatory Notes: Because of its fine language and poetry, of its apt similes and metaphors, descriptive of an emaciated asthmatic, of its appeal to the imagination, and also of its plaintive tune, I have decided to make Harata Tangikuku's Lament my initial contribution to Te Ao Hou. Harata Tangikuku, the mother of the chief, Wi Pewhairangi of Tokomaru Bay, was a Maori poetess. From her use of similes, it is obvious she suffers from asthma. She would join a party of women on their way to the rocks to dive for crayfish, to gather sea-eggs and pauas, but because of her emaciated condition she cannot. She resigns herself to her fate, ‘a thing void’ ‘as crackling seaweed on shore’. It is needless to mention that the translation is not literal and is without rhythm and metre. First Maori priest to be invited to work in a Polynesian island is the Rev. John Tamahori, of Wairoa, a Maori priest of the diocese of Waiapu. The Rev. Tamahori left recently to serve in Tonga.—Evening Post. * * * A two-day course in Maori arts and crafts was held by the Maori Women's Welfare League in Hastings recently. The course included demonstrations and instructions in tukutuku work, and kit and mat-making. In the evenings, educational films were shown and talks given on cultural and historical subjects. The instructors of the craft work were Maori women of the organisation, but assistance was also given by tutors of the Adult Education Service.—Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune.