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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 9 (December 1, 1934)

The Maori Welcome

The Maori Welcome.

Saturday, December 22, will be the most dramatic and colourful and distinctively New Zealand day of the tour, for that is the day set apart for the Maori greeting to the Duke at Rotorua. Many tribes besides the Arawa will page 22 assemble on the great marae for the ceremonies of welcome and homage to the King's son.

There will be memories among the elders of the tribes of the wonderful congress of Maoris on that assembly ground in 1901, when the King and Queen—then the Duke and Duchess of York—visited Rotorua. That was in midwinter; this time the midsummer weather will heighten the colour and the joyous note of the gathering. The old chiefs, the tattooed warriors who typified the adventurous past and the ways of danger, have passed on to the Reinga; their parade before Royalty had something of the heroic spirit of “Ave Caesar! Morituru te salutamus.” Now the new generation rules; but the note of racial colour is none the less vivid—the songs and chants, the poetic charm of the poi; the artistry of the women's costumes, the thrill of the haka and the peruperu are with the Maori still; and such gatherings as that held at historic Waitangi this year revived the athletic drill and the fervour of the warlike past.