Show util guv how En glands king lost a great art treasure HONOLULU IT T IS extremely bad form to drop into the I 1 hawaiian lawa iian capital without making Z a call upon dr peter buck D S 0 M D M A fellow of the royal society of new zealand the royal anthropological olo 6 ical institute of great britain and director of the bishop museum of honolulu on the wall of his library in a massive fr frame ame beautifully carved hangs the portrait of a maori warrior tattooed with all the barbaric frescoes approved by that warlike people the grizzled patriarch fascinated me who might this be I 1 asked A distinguished maori journalist replied the professor chuckling one of the most belligerent of his time in 1860 when the maoris laoris were occupied with a war against the english this man patara tetu te tu hi got hold of some type and a printing press with which he undertook to enlighten his countrymen on the subject of british interference with maori ambitions and maori government his broadsides broad sides issued weekly lacked nothing in fervor or clarity fact is editor batata t te e buhi so got the british goat as it were that a young englishman by the name of john gorst was appointed by the english to make a counter attack in print he called his weekly te moke moke the sparrow that sits on the housetops alone evidently the two representatives of the fourth estate stirred up considerable ill feeling in point of artistry pata ra te buhi had the edge on the briton who cast all etiquette aside alafris maoris shoo sparrow away and just for that continued dr buck the maori lads moved in shooed the sparrow os oft the housetop smashed the press took john gorst captive melted the type metal into bullets and fired upon the british the execution of gorst was contemplated by the maori but patara who had a high sense of justice promptly scotched scorched scot ched the suggestion on the ground that it was unprofessional to abolish an editor for doing the best he could he proposed that journalist gorst be given three weeks to close his affairs and leave the country and so it was gorst disappeared forty five years later at auckland the british commission on in international ter exposition was held among the delegates to receive the maori statesmen headed by patara a grand old man among his people was sir john gorst now famous as a great authority on affairs egyptian that the two once implacable editors should meet and shake hands on the old field of hatred made a profound impression upon all present sir john aware that the detara had once rescued him from the mob allowed the mist to come into his eyes memorial for the prince now there is yet another chapter resumed dr buck which brings us up to 1920 when the prince of wales now edward VIII touring the world reached Rot orva new zealand there to dedicate a public park in the presence of maori in order to suitably frame the handsomely illuminated vellum recording the event rare and valuable totora wood was cut from the oldest and finest war canoe extant and turned over to the greatest woodcarver in new zealand for conversion into a work of art priceless and beyond duplication the woodworker worker on his own initiative fashioned a frame that measured four inches less across the top than the bottom A howl went up and lie he was instructed to make it over into a perfect rectangle can do said he and did everything seemed 0 K until a stickler mickler broke into lamentations this will not do he declared we cannot allow the grandson of her beloved majesty queen victoria to be the recipient of a secondhand second hand article another frame must be fashioned and made right the first time another chunk of timber was cut from the war canoe another frame was carved to specifications and presented to the prince with elaborate ceremony in no particular did it compare with the original creation either in material or artistry but it did not come under the secondhand second hand classification nor was the prince ever made aware of the error every man on the framing committee participated in a scramble to get possession of the first model which measured avs feet wide by 3 feet deep and although weighing about twenty pounds a more exquisite piece of property never existed from hand to hand it passed until finally just how I 1 cant truthfully say it came into my jurisdiction ownership is is difficult to establish however possession is nine points that is conceded I 1 assume exactly well here it is on my wall surrounding the portrait of pat patara 1 ate a te buhi 1 0 |