A Bit of Maoriland: Ngaroki Te Uru Maori Priest

A colour painting of Ngaroki Te Uru done in the early 1900s.  part of the J.B.Series No. 312. 

The message on the back reads 'How would you like to encounter this gentleman on a dark night? He is in the native dress made from the leaves of the N.Z flax or phormium and afterwards dyed. When the white men came here the Maoris were heathens and in some of the wilder parts of the North Is, missionaries are still working among them but most of them are now Christians.  Some years ago Mormon missionaries came over here and gained a number of converts amonth the Maoris.'  There is no postmark or date on the postcard.