92 



Mat and Basket Weavmg. 



New 2/ealand Kete. — The so-called "flax" of New Zealand {P/ioniiiiivi tenax 

 Forst., native Harakakc) is one of the most important commercial fibres of the Pacific 

 region. This liliaceous plant, of which the observant old Maori distinguished fift}' or 

 sixty varieties, and the botanists note two species, grows wild over a vast extent of 

 marshy land in New Zealand, and the traveler through the North Island sees the plant 

 with its tall flower stems on everj^ side. Indeed on landing at Auckland one sees bale 

 upon bale of the attractive looking fibre awaiting 

 shipment. It is unnecessary here to go into the 

 commercial preparation of the fibre for several full 

 accounts of this are accessible, ^"^ and we need only 

 present some of the producT:s made from this raw 

 material in the line of our present studj-. 



Kapa or bark cloth made of felted fibre was 

 useless in the cool and wet climate of New Zealand, 

 and the Pol3mesian immigrants must soon have de- 

 vised a way to utilize a fibre as beautiful as it is 

 tenacious and durable. It is often stated in books 

 on New Zealand that no implement or machine can 

 clean the fibre with the perfedlion of that very primi- 

 tive tool a Maori thumbnail, and while this is tnie 

 in a sense it must be acknowledged that modern 

 machinery certainly turns out a very fine product. 



It would be very interesting to go more fully 

 into an examination of the weaving of the wonderful 

 cloaks, of which extraordinary examples are in this ^^^- 93- maori satchels. 



and other museums, but this has been well done by Mr. Hamilton, now DireAor of the 

 Wellington Museum {loc. cit.^ p. 271), and his illustrations show the perfedlion to which 

 the native manufadlure attained. There was no loom, but the pegs {tn ni / ii rn-parawai) 

 which held the web for the webster during weaving were often grotesquely carved. I have, 

 however, thought best to give some examples of the kete, kits or satchels, in this weav- 

 ing as they illustrate the work as well perhaps as the more elaborate cloaks. Fig. 92 

 shows two of these, the i:pper one, No. 5S19, is of bleached fibre mingled with a portion 

 dyed yellow (with a Coprosmaf). The weave is very simple and effective, as can 

 readily be seen in the illustration. In some remarkably fine and costly ones that 

 I found in the Taranaki district the weaver had introduced the beautiful cone of 



'"' Elsdon Best, The Art of Whare pora Maori flax weaving: Trans. N. Z. Institute, xxxii. A. Hamilton, Maori 

 Art, quotes largely from Mr. Best's essay. See also the Reports of the New Zealand Flax Commission. Sir James 

 Hector, Phormium tenax, 1892. 



