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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 4 (July 1, 1936)

Restoring the Past

Restoring the Past.

Now Te Puea Herangi, the patriotic chieftainess of Waikato, who has taken so vigorous a part in the industrial rehabilitation of her people, is engaged in the worthy congenial task of reviving the all-but-vanished canoebuilding craft among the riverside tribes. Seven large canoes are to be hollowed out from totara tree trunks, and carved and decorated in the manner of the olden waka-taua. One partly destroyed historic war-canoe is now being restored at Waingaro, near Ngaruawahia, by a party of old tohungatarai-waka, or canoe-making experts; and others will be begun when suitable trees are procured.

Most of the canoes made on the Waikato during the last three or four decades have been of kahikatea or white pine, easy to work but prone to decay. It will be far more satisfactory to use the durable totara. But it will be necessary to go a long distance for suitable trees, probably to the Mokai bush, near Taupo, or to the Upper Wanganui River, where the best remaining forests of totara are found. The Pungapunga riverside was long ago a celebrated source of canoetimber. The people living there were almost constantly employed in making canoes for those further down the river, and even for tribes as far away as the Mokau.