NOTABLE NATIVE MEMORIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3141, 10 February 1911, Page 2

NOTABLE NATIVE MEMORIAL.

TO A WAIRARAPA CHIEF

On March 22 the memorial to the late Wairarapa ciiiei ALahupukii is to be formally unveiled at J'apawai (near Greytown). The memorial, which was designed by Air. .Nelson Illingworth, is [ a mausoleum-like structure, with four sides, pillared comers, and a dome-roof | terminating in an .ornamental globe. It is already in position, and only requires . the iixing-in of the sculptured panels, which are at present being modelled by Mr. Aelson Illingworth at his studio in Nairn . Street. “A ••Dominion" representative visited the studio yesterday, and was shown the casts of two of the panels, and the clay model of the third. One is a striking portrait of handsome old Maliupuku, as lie was before the hand of time had made its impress on the. sturdy figure. He is pictured in full .Maori dress, with the pride of blood and race nicely suggested in pose and expression. Another pane! shows Maliupuku in the act of signing' the jubilee memorial to the late Queen Victoria, wit!) the late Mr. iSeddon sitting on the other side of the table, and lie Hon. J ames Carroll. Pa rata, and several notable Natives faithfully pictured in a group of heads at the hack. In this panel the portraiture is particularly good. The third panel is entitled "The Coming of the Pakcha," and embodies on idea based on words spoken by Alahupuku on a notable occasion when lie said very truthfully that lie stood on the borderland 1 between the old and the new order of things in .New Zealand, the design consists of a group of figures a. fine bid-time Maori warrior, his face corrugated with rich tattooing, and wearing his hair in tiip. top-knot of a century ago. Bolt upright, and grasping a taialia in one hand, he gardes pensively out of the panel—to the future. Beside him is a characteristically young and beautiful Maori mother and her ha by boy,\ both looking forward to the , future, and the pakcha already (invisible) in view. The Avarrior of older-time might, with the aid of a little imaginafion, symbolise the dead chief, whilst the young woman and .her -child' represent those who would become the fellow- \ citizens of tli<* aggressive white man. The atristic craftsmanship of Mr. 11- j liiigwortlr is evident in each of the pan- J eh. The fourth side of the memorial i will he. occupied by a( marble plate, Avliich will hear an appropriate inscrip- 5 turn. The panels are to ho cast in , bronze by a new process of electrical deposit, Avhioli has superseded the old “foundry" methods of bronze-casting, j, This Avork Avill bo proceeded Avitli on the arrival of a special dynamo hoav on the i< water. blit tine here in a aa’oolc’s time. Tt is anticipated that the Prime Min- j ® istev. the Native Minister, am! other members .of the Cabinet Avill attend the j unveiling (oremony. J 22