A MAORI WARRIOR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 133, 17 March 1933, Page 3

A MAORI WARRIOR.

TE KOOTIjS LIEUTENANT. DEATH AT TOLAGA BAY. (Special to the "Guardian.") TOKOMABU BAY, March 15. First lieutenant to Te Kooti, a redoubtable Maori warrior was Tamihana Te Ao Tata, who died at Paremata settlement, on the "Dawa River, Tolaga Bay, at an age surmised to be between 93 and 95. "Old Thompson," as he was familiarly known to residents of Tolaga Bay and other parts of the East Coast, when quite a young man was brought back from imprisonment on the Chatham Islands with Te Kobti and others of his following and landed at Whareongaonga, near Gisborne, in 1864. Fighting immediately followed a u Paratu, Waerenga-ahika, Matawhero, Ngata Pa, and over to Waioeka, near Opotiki. At this stage Tamihana s first wife died and he was forced to return to Tolaga Bay by his father. Settling permanently in Paremata Pa in 1873, Tamihana threw over the Hauhau religion and was converted to the Anglican faith. He had acted since then as a lay reader among the people of his own race. Tamihana was married a second time to Ripeka Awata, from Waiheke Island, Auckland. There were eight children, two of whom are alive; 20 grandchildren, 14 of whom are alive, and nine great-grandchildren, seven of whom are alive.