| Show davv av I 1 how En glands king lost a great art treasure HONOLULU IT T IS extremely bad form ia to drop into the hawaiian capital without making a call upon dr peter buck D S 0 M D M A fellow of the royal society of new zealand the royal anthropological institute of great britain and diree director for of the bishop museum of honolulu on the wall ot of his library in a massive frame beautifully carved hangs hang the portrait of a maori warrior tattooed ged with all the barbaric frescoes approved by that warlike people the grizzled patriarch fascinated me who might this WI be I 1 asked 41 A distinguished maori journalist i is II 11 I 1 replied replie d thi the professor bliff chuck hu ck linge ling one of the most belligerent gerani of his time in 1860 when the laoris maoris were here occupied with a war aar against the english this man patara tetu te tu lit hl got gothold hold of some type and a printing press with which lie he undertook to enlighten his countrymen on the subject of british interference with maori ambitions and maori government his broadsides broad sides issued weekly licked lacked nothing in fervor or clarity fact is editor te kuhi so got the british goat as il it t were that a young englishman by the name of john gorst was ip appointed by the english to make faaea i a counter attack in print hei 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 ca cast st all etiquette aside maoris laoris shoo sparrow away and just for that continued dr buck the maori lads moved in shooed the sparrow off 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 anthe on the ground that it etwas 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 G gorst arst disappeared forty five years later at auckland the british commission on international ter exposition was held among the delegates io receive thi the maori statesmen states nien headed by bi patara a grand old man among his people was sir john gorst now famous camou s as a great authority on affairs egyptian that the two once 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 Kot 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 exta extant nt and turned over to the greatest woodcarver woodcarver in new zealand for conversion into a work of art priceless and beyond duplication the woodworker on his own initiative fashioned a frame that measured me 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 stickier broke into lamentations this will not do he declared we cannot allow the grandson of her beloved majesty queen victoria tobe 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 present presen teB etl to the prince with elaborate ceremony in no particular la i r 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 odthe of the error every gnarl man on the framing committee participated in a scramble to get i possession of the first model which measured 2 feet wide by 3 feet deep and although weighing about i twenty pounds po linds a more exquisite piece of property rever never existed from hand to hand it passed until finally just how haw scant I 1 cant truthfully say it came inton my jurisdiction ownership is difficult to establish however er possession is nine points that is conceded I 1 asaumi assume as sumi exactly i well here it Is on my wall surrounding rounding the portrait of patara te auhl 11 borsics bor |
