182 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
The rafters are painted in very pleasing and graceful designs in 
red, black and white. Inside, between the upright, richly carved 
slabs, the walls are covered with finely woven reeds bound to- 
gether with flax in regular geometric patterns, giving an exceed- 
ingly dainty effect. 
The finest and most complete Maori war canoe of the ancient 
kind is here. It is 84 feet long with a beam of 7 feet, and was 
eapable of accommodating one hundred warriors. I counted the 
seats and found the statement to be true. The prow, and particu- 
larly the great sternpost, was the most elaborate piece of per- 
forated carving which I saw in New Zealand, the spiral design 
predominating. The wood was black and resembled the finest 
ebony. This canoe and the ‘‘guest house’’ are the largest objects 
displayed, but there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of others 
which are smaller but of equal interest. An ethnologist could 
spend many months there in a delightful and profitable study of 
the treasures in the Auckland museum, and I am sure he would 
be impressed with the artistic skill of the Maoris in carving every- 
thing, even the bailers for their canoes! 
There is a strict law in New Zealand against the exportation of 
genuine Maori work, but much of it was taken out of the country 
before this law was passed. 
The exhibit of jade or ‘‘green-stone’’ was particularly valuable, 
as well as interesting. This beautiful stone is hard enough to 
scratch glass and takes a very fine polish. The work of cutting 
it without the ordinary metal tools must have been arduous in the 
extreme. When separating a piece from a large block a groove 
was formed by rubbing with wet sand under a thin edged stone, 
and the groove was deepened with almost infinite patience until 
a slab was cut off. The ‘‘mere,’’ a spatulate, short, club-like 
affair, was made of jade and used by the Maori warriors; and a 
curious grotesque figure called ‘‘Tiki’’ was carved from a flat 
piece of jade and worn by the women as a sort of good luck 
charm. 
I was glad to learn that something like $1,000,000 had been 
appropriated for a new building to house these superb collections. 
I understand that this is a municipal museum and it is one of 
which any city might well be proud. 
The next day I found myself greatly interested in the beautiful 
carvings in the museum and went on a search in the various 
photograph establishments to find what they had in the way of 
