First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on June 15, 1925

MAORI ENTERTAINERS.

The stage of the Lyric Wintergarden Theatre on Saturday had been converted into an exquisite setting for the songs and dances of Princess Rangiriri and her Nine Maori Maids.

Through an arch of trees and fantastic vines the eye passed to a broad, rippled stretch of water, and rested beyond this on a tremendous volcano, with a cap of snow. The whole vista glowed with brilliant red and purple and sulphurous green.

At times electric twinklings in the arch of foliage represented the activity of fireflies hovering about the quaintly carved Maori houses near the left wings.

The voices of the girls were not strong, but they possessed a clear sweetness that made them attractive.

There were bright choruses, humorous little unaccompanied duets; Maori songs, with the rhythm stimulatingly marked by a swish of beaded skirts; and transitory burlesques of the hula-hula, done by the portliest of the party.

Most charming of all, because most characteristic of the Maoris, were the poi dances. There was perfect unity and freedom in the twirling of the little white spheres, as the girls sat or reclined, in a row against the purple waters of the lake.