DEATH OF AGED MAORI

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27096, 20 July 1953, Page 8

DEATH OF AGED MAORI

Woman Believed To Be 108

MEMORIES OF 1886 ERUPTION

(New Zealand Press Association) a N ® W PLYMOUTH, July 19. > A Maori woman believed to be 108 years of age, died at Tokaanu today. She was Mrs Tarihira Mariu, a prombent member of the Ngati-Turangi-Tukau, a sub-tribe of the Tuwharetoa tribe.

There is no record of the date- of Mrs Mariu’s birth, but she used to recall the Tarawera eruption in 1886 and the last stand of Te Kooti, the Maori . rebel chief, at the walled Porere Pa, above the headwaters of the Wanganui river. She spent nearly all her life at the Waihi Maori settlement, on the shores of Lake Taupo, artd at Tokaanu, but she travelled often until two years ago to attend important Maori gatherings at various parts of the North Island.

Mrs Mariu’s husband, who died about 40 years ago, was a descendant of Tukino Te Heu Heu, paramount chief of the Ua Aretoa tribe, who presented the nucleus of the Tongariro National Park to the Crown. Mrs Mariu retained all her faculties until the time of her death and until recently was very active.