"Utaina"—Load the Canoe

This is the motto on the seal of the Board of Maori Ethnology calling on us to load the remnants of the treasures of the Maori on to the canoe. Some of you may perhaps look askance at this and make the accusation that these treasures would be sold for money.

We have seen that our ancestors did not withold these waiatas altogether from the Pakeha. The songs were laid down in many books but the explanations were lost. Perhaps they had been given but they are nowhere to be found.

Would you rather that these waiatas were left alone with all their obvious mistakes? Taite te Tomo and Ngakuru Pene Haare have sent in their corrections. The call has gone out to bring all the treasures of the race to a focal point.

The Board of Ethnology has spent nigh on £9,000 on the publication of modern works by Elsdon Best, Te Rangihiroa and others, explaining page 4 the customs and the migrations of the Maori. These writers received no monetary reward for their labours. Such assistance as was given was expended on the publication of their works.