OBITUARY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 9, 10 May 1939, Page 4

OBITUARY

0 WIREMU PARAONE, TAURANGI^^ '"7 —" v COLOURFUL PERSONALITY DIKS . fc , The sucWen death of Wiremu Parar one —known to the pakeha as WiL. , liam Brown —-which occurred at his home, Wairoa, Tauranga, on April 29 removes a colourful personality from the Bay of Plenty. Paraone was 78 years old and speufc his early ypu'th with the late Bishop , H. W„ Williams, of Napier, where he received his schooling. Later he settled at Wairoa where he farmed for a lifetime, rearing a large family GATE PA MEMORIES 1 He was the only son of Paraone Koikoi who was killed at the battle of Gate Pa. His father beforer the engagement organised the safety of 1 the Maori women and children and saw to it that the kainga was wj»ll supplied with food for the defence.. When the attack came he took ujj» arms. As a chivalrous was honoured with burial in th«F Military Cemetery, Taurangal Koij koi's mother was a native of high i caste who was descended from. tl»2 I Ngati-Raukawa (Otaki) tribe, , 800 AT TANGI Deceased was well versed in tha genealogy of the Maori and traced his own, ancestry to Ranginui, of tile Takitimu canoe. Ranginui's younger . brother was Kahungunu, the ancesfc. or of the Pov r erty Bay. Hawkers B«iv and Wajrarapa Maoris, from whicht fact there were over 100 visitors ty* Judea from those parts. Anothec brother of Ranginui was Arapihin&arangi, from whom descended all the Maoris of Torere (Opotiki), that tribe being represented by twenty : members at the tangi.. Others came , from Coromandel, Ngatiwaltu, Nortli 1 Auckland, Waikato and Te Arawa„ In addition, all the tribes of Tau- ; ranga were well represented to wet- * come the 800 visitors who assembled at Judea to pay thejj last respects to * deceased and his family. The " ke's Bay party of over 100 travelled r in, two large special buses and pri--5 vate motors, led by Hori Tupaea.( ■ the well-known chieftain of Opapa. : Hastings, and a prominent runholdeir J and sportsman of that district. , ' FOUGHT THE TOHUNGAS Wiremu Paraone's greatest accomplishment was perhaps his struggle against tohungaism which practice he found rife among the Ngati-»Rait. ginui tribe on his return from Napier as a young man. With his six sisters deceased began a relentless campaign against the practice, with the result that before long Christianity was the unchallenged faith of his tribe. Old L Tauranga residents also remember that one of his sisters, the late David Hall, took a firm stand in proi hibiting the entry of alcohol into the pas. This was not illegal at £hg> time and consequently the struggle . against it wa s much harder than it would be to-day, but her decrees were honoured to the letter. 5 INTEREST IN RACING As a.young man, Paraone took » keen interest in the thoroughbrtfcl I and was well-known in racing tfrclfts on the coast, in the days when prac-. tically every Maori Pa had its race meeting* one of the most popular being held on the Judea beach. Christmas, at which function he acted as judge and was a member t»£ the executive. ■ A traditional native enacted at dawn on Wednesday last. 1 when deceased was interred in the ancestral cemetery at Motuapae 1 (Peach Island). in the J udea estuary Deceased leaves a widow, four sons . and three daughters, Messrs T. Brown D» Brown, J. Brown (Wairoa), P* Bfovftj (Auckland) and Mesdames I*. " Tama (Te Tcfco), P. Apaapa and L. Parata (Wairoa). A son, Mr Brown, died at Matata recent|^