MAORI MORMONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1928, Page 9

MAORI MORMONS.

GATHERING AT VGABV AWAHXA 2500 TO ATTEND. Maoris from all quarters of the North Island will assemble at Ngaruawahia within the next fortnight for the annual Mormon gathering to be held (here. It is expected that the gathering will be larger than it was last year, when the attendance reached as high as 1200 and that 2500 natives will make the banks of the Waikato their camping ground for several days during Easter.

The festivities will extend from April 6 to April 8, and the visitors will be entertained by Princess Te Puea Herangi at the model Maori pa at Ngaruawahia.

A feature of the celebrations will be that arrangements in connection with them will be made by the Hui-tau Committee, of which Mr. Wirimu Duncan, of Dannevirke, is chairman, although Mormon elders will conduct the actual devoi tional services. Elder J. Howard Jenkins (mission president) will be in charge of the gathering, which will conclude on Easter Monday with a concert; On Tuesday the natives will return to their homes.

It is likely that the event will be honoured by a visit from the GovernorGeneral (Sir Charles Fergusson), who has promised on behalf of the Government to give consideration to the request for the erection of another large whare. Some time ago a large meeting house was erected by the natives at Ngaruawahia, and the adherents of the Mormon organisation were the first to use it last year.