Owner holds on to Rua pictures

By LAUREN MENTJOX


The Aucklander who has a photo album documenting Maori leader Rua Kenana's trial has decided not to sell it because of controversy surrounding who should own it.

The man, who does not want to be named, bought the album from an antique dealer and had planned to sell it at auction next month.

The album contains photographs of Rua's 47-day trial in the Supreme Court at Auckland in 1916 and could have sold for around $1200, according to Dunbar Sloane, owner of the Newmarket auctioneers who would have handled the sale.

After reading about the album's discovery in the Herald on Monday, Rua's descendants and Tuhoe tribe members said they planned to protest about the auction.

In a statement yesterday, the album's owner said he was prepared to destroy it if members of the Tuhoe tribe protested against its sale instead of bidding for it.

Later the vendor said he had decided to remove it from public sale. "It was the cheapest item in the whole auction and it had the potential to disrupt the rest of the auction process," he said.

It was hoped the album would be sold to a museum or institution such as the Alexander Turnbull Library or Te Papa, where it would be available to everyone.

"I don't mind donating it, but I do hope to recover my costs," the man said.

Tuhoe activist Tama Iti said he would be willing to pay only what the man paid for the album and no more.

"Why would he want photos of our ancestors? ... He is only trying to make a buck and the images don't belong to him."