The Art Of The Maori

IT is odd indeed that the NZ Maori, eternally at inter-tribal war, found time to perfect the art of carving, and display on his huts its finest examples, while the more-peaceful and leisurely Mangaian reserved it for idols only. No local hut-post is, or was, anything but a plain, smooth piece of wood (and as Cl roofs are all thatched, there never were any “barge-boards” at the ends of huts).

The chopping-up and burning of Man gaian Gods by William’s converts a cen tury ago, has robbed posterity of all con ception of the appearance of these idols; but one huge carved war-drum, called Tangi-Moana (Voice of the Ocean) was hidden under the deep mud of a large taro-patch, and is there to-day if any one knew where to dig!—ET.

Ratu Edward Cakobau, of Fiji, who is attending the Colonial Administrative Officers’ Course at Oxford University, re cently spent some time in hospital. An attack of malaria, the result of his war service in the Solomons, was followed by pneumonia. He has now fully recovered.