Srack.—On the Maori House, Christchurch Museum. 173 
It was originally intended as a residence for the Chief, Henare Potae, of 
Tokomaru. During the late war, the materials prepared for it, were 
partially destroyed by the Hau-Haus, which delayed its erection, till it was 
fortunately secured for the Christchurch Museum, by Samuel Locke, Esq., 
of Napier. 
Two natives were engaged to proceed to Canterbury to erect the house, 
one being the designer of it, and the other Tamati Ngakako. They arrived 
wn J anuary, 1874, and remained till December of the same year, when the 
_ building was completed. 
It was intended at first, that the Maoris should put the house up 
entirely themselves, using only such materials for the purpose, as were 
commonly employed before the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand. 
That it should, in fact, be an exact representation of a native chiefs’ 
dwelling, in the best style of Maori architecture and house decoration. 
Why this intention was not carried out, it is necessary to explain, as the 
alterations subsequently made in the construction of the building have 
excited so much unfavorable criticism. 
The first departure from the original intention, was caused by the 
unexpected costliness of the materials. It was thought unadvisable to risk 
the speedy destruction of the carved timbers, which had already cost £290, 
by allowing them to be set up in the grounds after the Maori fashion, 
accordingly, a concrete foundation was laid for them. This alteration in 
the structure, necessitated the erection of a frame-work, by Kuropean car- 
penters, to which the Maori work was fastened. And as the building 
proceeded, other alterations had to be made, which rendered it still more 
unlike what it was meant to be. Fluted kauri boards were substituted for 
toe-toe reeds inside, and the outside of the building was covered with cor- 
rugated iron, instead of the ordinary covering of raupo and toe-toe, which 
was of too inflammable a nature to be allowed upon a building placed so 
close to the museum. ‘The incongruities of style would, doubtless, provoke 
less remark, if the building were called what it really is, the Maori Court, 
instead of the Maori House. 
For some months after their arrival, the two Maoris were employed 
completing the carving of the posts, and painting the scrolls on the rafters. 
The carvings are all executed in totara, (as being both the most durable 
wood, and best suited for the carvers’ work, and painted with red ochre). 
The colours employed in the scrolls, are white, black, red, green, and blue. 
The three first colours, are formed with pipe-clay, charcoal, and red ochre, 
mixed with water or fish oil, and are those most commonly used by the 
Maoris. The juice of the poporo, and a certain fungus, produce the blue 
