diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8cafcb578..70ae2910b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2002-11-13  Vladimir Vukicevic  <vladimir@pobox.com>
+
+	* gtk/CanvasItem.custom: use base() to set Raw in constructor, so
+	that the ref counting semantics get correctly set up
+
 2002-11-10  Gonzalo Paniagua Javier <gonzalo@ximian.com>
 
 	* glade/XML.custom: converted from Latin1 to UTF8 to make the generator
diff --git a/gnome/CanvasItem.custom b/gnome/CanvasItem.custom
index c3e51ff01..5897b81f0 100644
--- a/gnome/CanvasItem.custom
+++ b/gnome/CanvasItem.custom
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
 static extern System.IntPtr gnome_canvas_item_new (IntPtr group, int type, IntPtr null_terminator);
 
 public CanvasItem (Gnome.CanvasGroup group, int type)
+	: base (gnome_canvas_item_new (group.Handle, type, IntPtr.Zero))
 {
-	Raw = gnome_canvas_item_new (group.Handle, type, IntPtr.Zero);
 }
 
 [DllImport("gtksharpglue")]