674 Proceedings. 



Third Meeting : 2nd July, 1894. 



Mr. J. H. Upton, President, in the chair. 



New Members. — J. Brown, A. H. Hosking, W. Philcox, 

 Professor Tubbs. 



The President said lie had much pleasure in announcing that the 

 Council had purchased the celebrated carved house at Maketu. Some 

 years ago it was intimated to them by their esteemed member, Mr. F. D. 

 Fenton, that this famous house could be purchased ; but at that time 

 there were difficulties in the way of money matters. A few weeks ago, 

 however, Mr. Fenton obtained an offer of the house at a very reasonable 

 price, and at once placed it before the Council. The Council decided to 

 accept the offer, and asked Mr. Fenton and Mr. Cheeseman to proceed to 

 Maketu to complete the purchase and obtain possession of the house. 

 This had been done, and the carvings would arrive in Auckland during 

 the week. He would now ask Mr. Cheeseman to give a description of 

 the house. 



Mr. Cheeseman said : The carved house, which, through the 

 assistance of our friend Mr. Fenton, has just been purchased for the 

 Auckland Museum, was the property of Te Pokiha Taranui, the leading 

 chief of the Ngatipikiao Tribe, a section of the Arawa. Te Pokiha is 

 better known to us by his European sobriquet of Major Fox, he having 

 commanded a portion of the Arawa contingent during the chase after Te 

 Kooti. The house stood at Maketu, about eighteen miles south of 

 Tauranga, and was built about 1863. It belongs to the class of carved 

 houses known as pataka, or storehouses. These are raised on legs, and 

 have the whole of their carvings and other ornamentation on the outside, 

 thus differing from the ricnanga, or meeting-houses, in which it is the in- 

 terior which is carved and decorated. The house is without doubt the 

 finest and most complete of its class in existence, as you will probably all 

 admit when it is erected in Auckland. It is about 35ft. long by about 

 20ft. broad, and has a height of 15ft. to the crown of the roof. The sides 

 and both ends are formed of upright totara slabs, boldly and elaborately 

 carved, the carvings being mainly grotesque representations of the human 

 figure. The ridge-boards are carved to represent a number of ngarara, or 

 lizards, running along the roof, and the maihi, or gable-boards, have 

 carvings of the mythological animal known as manaia— probably a kind 

 of taniwha. In front of the house is a carved verandah, some 5ft. or 6ft. 

 deep, and it is on the walls of this that the most elaborate carvings in the 

 house are placed, many of the slabs representing well-known ancestors of 

 the Ngatipikiao Tribe. For instance, a large carved figure over the door- 

 way stands for Tama te Kapua, the captain of the "Arawa" canoe, which, 

 it will be remembered, was finally beached at Maketu after its adven- 

 turous voyage from Hawaiki to New Zealand. The tckotcko on the roof 

 above is Takenga, one of the descendants of Tama te Kapua, and a remote 

 ancestor of Pokiha ; another tckotcko is Awanui, a son of Takenga; and so 

 on. In fact, the chief figures on the house are evidently intended to 

 illustrate Pokiha's genealogy. The house itself bears two names — one 

 being Tuhua Katoore, the signification of which is " the pit of the 

 taniwha" ; the other Puawai o te Arawa, or " the flower of the Arawa." 

 Maketu also possesses two runanga houses — one of them, known as Hou- 

 matawhiti, being the finest of its kind in New Zealand. As already 

 mentioned, Maketu is noted as being the landing-place of the famed 

 Arawa canoe ; and a clump of mingimingi trees, old and hoary, and evi- 

 dently of great antiquity, is still pointed out as having sprung from the 

 skids which were used in hauling up the canoe on the beach. 



On the motion of the President, a cordial vote of thanks was unani- 



