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 in January, 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 European carpenters, 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

and green, which, however, are rarely used, being less easily prepared, and less effective.

The scrolls with which the rafters and ridge-pole are covered, are confined to the pattern, called Pare-mango. The other well-known pattern, the Kowhaiwhai,^* being altogether omitted.

There are fifteen carved upright slabs on either side of the building, placed exactly opposite to each other. They average seventeen inches in width and from two to three inches in thickness, and are about two feet apart. The surface of each post is divided into two equal parts, on each of which a grotesque representation of the human form is carved in slight relief, the eyes being inlaid with pawa shell. The style of carving generally employed throughout is the Ponga. At both gables there are seven posts, the middle one, on which the ridge-pole rests, being the widest and best finished. From each of the side-posts, a broad rafter, slightly convex, springs, resting on the ridge-pole, which is a broad, flat piece of timber highly ornamented. The rafters are covered with scrolls, done in white, upon a red-blue, or green ground. The artist, unfortunately, did not confine himself to ancient patterns, but introduced various novelties of his own designing, consisting, for the most part, of representations of the leaves of different plants and shrubs. At each gable end there is a board a foot wide, running up from the wall-plate to the ridge-pole, covering the ends of the uprights, and painted with grotesque faces, not unlike Chinese designs. These are intended as specimens of the style adopted in ornamenting whatas and out-door buildings. There are two posts, 9in. x 12in., supporting the ridge-pole, and covered with a modern diamond pattern. These posts, in a native home, would have been round, and the surface carved; but suitable timbers for the purpose could not be obtained. The door-way is placed at the south end, and is three feet wide, and six feet nine inches high, being at least two feet higher than was usual in former times, when the door-way was made low, in order to place a person entering with hostile intent, at a disadvantage. The wooden door, working in a socket, is replaced by a pane of glass. The window is three feet wide, and four feet high, the ancient proportions being here reversed, and glass again supplies the place of a wooden shutter. Beneath the window was the seat of honor, where the chief sat, and, this being the left hand side, was tapu, or sacred, the opposite side being noa, or common. It was through the window that the officiating priest entered to perform the purifying ceremonies which always attended the opening of a new house—an occasion looked forward to with some anxiety by the builders, for, should any mistake be made by

him in repeating the proper charms and incantations, it was an infallible sign that either the house would be destroyed, or the builders die within a year.

The position of the window may have also had something to do with the sacredness of this part of the building, as there was a fanciful resemblance supposed to exist between the shape of the house and the human frame—the ridge-pole being the back-bone; the rafters and side-posts, the ribs; and the verandah end, the head—the most sacred part of the human body.

Passing over the door-step, called the Pae of Hakumanu, we enter the verandah formed by a continuation of the roof and the side-walls for nine feet. Here we find the best specimens of carving about the building. The ridge-pole, which is carved, rests on a support, and at its base a piece of wood stretches across from side to side, forming the outer boundary of the verandah, and called the Pae o Rarotonga. The boards round the door-way and window are elaborately carved, and inlaid with pawa shell, and so are the ends of the barge-boards, on the uncarved part of which are painted white scrolls on a red ground. Where the barge-boards meet is a carved face, surrounded with feathers, and surmounted with a small figure called a tekoteko.

The house stands with the ridge-pole pointing north and south, according to immemorial custom. The prevalent notion being that, if the spirits of the dead, in their flight northwards, crossed the ridge-pole of a dwelling or store-house, they would cause the ruin and destruction of all within.

The art of wood-carving is in greater perfection among the Maoris on the East Coast of the North Island than elsewhere. This is generally attributed to the fact that the stern-posts and figure-heads of the canoes in which their ancestors came from Hawaiki were highly carved, and were preserved and used as models by their descendants, who, having cultivated a taste for the art, have never lost it.

Tamati Taahu stated that the knowledge of carving was hereditary in his family, who have preserved the following curious legend to account for the way in which their ancestor became possessed of it:—“In ages gone by, there dwelt, by the sea shore, a chief named Ruapupuke, who had an only son; this boy went, one day, with several others to bathe. While swimming about Tangaroa, the god of the ocean seized him, and drew him below the surface, and carried him down to his house under the sea, where he placed him on the end of the ridge-pole over the door-way, as a Tekoteko. On the other boys returning to their village Ruapupuke missed his son, and asked his companions where he was. They told him that he had