fascinating was the racing of little canoes made from flax leaves and stems. A carved wooden figure, about eighteen inches in height, with legs merging into a handgrip, but with loose rams held in place by a cord which passed through the arms and the shoulders, was called a karetao. With the exception of the arms, the whole body was carved out of one piece. The cord was knotted immediately in front of the upper part of the arm and passed through the shoulder. The figure was held upright in the left hand while the other was used to pull the cord in various ways—upwards, downwards or to either side. By manipulating the cord the hands and arms were forced to move in different directions in emulation of a person performing a haka. Sometimes a whole row of performers in a haka or action song would be equipped with these karetao, and as the rows in front knelt, the figures would be brought forth and their movements displayed to the delight of the onlookers. Some years ago a number of stone bowls were discovered but nobody could remember their use. They were round, about five inches in diameter, and about three inches thick across their flattened sides. It has been suggested that they might have been used in a game something akin to the present-day bowls. The suggestion is not too farfetched, as the Hawaiian people used stone bowls in a game which they called maika, while in the Cook Islands a game called pua, was played with wooden bowls. Incidentally, we are told that these were engraved with the Grecian symbol of health, but no one can tell us how the symbol came to be found way down in the South Pacific Islands. A curious pastime upoko titi played by little ones, was one in which the fingers of a number of players were crooked over each other until they were all bunched together. As far as the writer can gather it seems to have had no significance. It is of interest however, in that a similar game was played by the native children of Queensland. Whare tapere, a figurative expression, was applied to that place in which young folk assembled to indulge in social pleasures. While no special house was built for that purpose, the name, which might be described as the House of Games, or the House of Pleasure, would be applied to any building in which the youth of the time met to play their games. Some of these were regarded as being useful in the teaching of the wielding of weapons, in the teaching of swimming and aquatic sports, in gaining confidence when in and on water, and in the teaching of agility and dexterity, and some were useful for testing the memory and mental alertness. Today, like many other Maori institutions, the whare tapere is no more. At a meeting in Auckland last July, Mr T. P. Paikea M.P., was elected chairman of an Auckland Marae Society, which plans to build a carved meeting house and other marae facilities on a 4 ½ acre property in New Lynn, some eight miles out of the centre of Auckland. Secretary of the society is Dr M. Winiata; and joint treasurers, Mrs W. Cooper and Mr E. Porter. First project of the society is to build a workshop and complete carvings for the new house. Some of these have already been made, and described in issue 19 of Te Ao Hou.

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