GIFT OF TENE WAITERE'S CARVINGS

Te Ao Hou, September 1961, Page 64

GIFT OF TENE WAITERE'S CARVINGS Maori carvings have been presented to the Taupo Borough Council for the erection of a Maori house in Taupo. The gift was part of the will of the late Mrs Lucy Rongoekumi Reid. The carvings were the work of the late Tene Waitere, an uncle of Mrs Reid, who died in 1931 at the age of 77. Tene Waitere was survivor of the Tarawera eruption of 1886, after which he lived at Rotorua. His work is a notable example of Arawa carving When the late King George V, as Duke of York, visited Rotorua, he was presented with one of Tene Waitere's most notable carvings, a model of the Arawa canoe. When the Duke of Windsor, as Prince of Wales, visited Rotorua, he was presented with a carved flag pole made by Waitere. He was also responsible for the carved model pataka presented during the visit of the late King George VI and the Queen Mother, in 1926. Other works are: the carved gateway over the model pa at Whakarewarewa, the well-known carved house there, the carved gateway at the entrance of the Taupo sports ground. The carvings now donated to the Borough Council were his last major work.