FUNERAL OF HONI PIHAMA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8750, 11 April 1890, Page 2

FUNERAL OF HONI PIHAMA.

TANGI AT PARIHAKA. The remains of the popular West Coast chief Hone Pihama were interred on Friday lust (April 4), at the entrance to the village at Parihaka. There was a large gathering of natives present at the ceremony, and numbers are still arriving to be present at the tangi which is now going on out of respect for the memory of a chief whom the Maoris all looked up to and respected. The body of Hone Pihaina was placed in a coffin (not, as stated by the Haweni Star, " wrapped in a shawl in Ilau Han fashion") and buried, so the natives state, " like a pakeha." The tangi is the largest, and will last longer than any that has been held on this Coast for many a year. Natives from all parts of the Went Coast are attending it, and as each hapu is bringing large quantities of provisions, the gathering is not likely to come to an end for a month. We learn the natives have forty head of cattle at Parihaka, which have been sent as presents from different parties of natives for the feast at the tangi. The lelatives of Honi Pihamh tried to persuade those living on the Plains from going to Parihaka to attend the taiuji, wishing it to take place at Oeo, where the land and home of the deceased was, but the natives refused to heed their requests, tind left for the place where the body had been carried to. Honi Pihaina's brother refused to go; and ho and a few of the deceased chief's relatives remain at Oco to mourn by themselves. With regard to Honi Pihama's name, we understand he was christened by a missionary clergyman " John Beecham," it being customary to give both a Christian and a surname to natives when they were baptised. " Beecham " in Maori became transmogrified into " Pihama," the name the deceased chief was always known by till his death.