Woman Oldest In N.Z.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32050, 26 July 1969, Page 3

Woman Oldest In N.Z.

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, July 25. Mrs Ngakahikatea Whirihana was born a long time ago —before the Maori wars, before the white man had truly made New Zealand his own.

At least 117 years of age, she is the oldest person in Ne« Zealand and believed to be the oldest in the southern hemisphere. She speaks only Maori. The rare moko pattern is tatooed on her chin. She still dresses, nineteenth-century Maori fashion, in blankets. She has outlived four husbands and many of her children, and her descendants are too numerous to be counted.

She lives at Matahuna, about four miles from Ohinewai, in North Waikato. When interviewed, she was swathed in two tartan blankets, one worn as a dress and the other as a shawl. A scarf covered her thick, grey hair. She had never consulted a

doctor in her life. Her health problem had been rheumatism, which had slowed her up a little in wet weather, she said. Her hearing and eyesight have deteriorated slightly, but not enough to interfere with conversation or watching television. She was born in the early 1850’s at the Paretitaha Pa, near Waitomo.

One of her earliest memories was the ripple of excitement which passed through the Waikato tribes when Potatau was elected the first Maori King, 110 years ago.

The Waikato wars followed but, she said, they largely passed her by. At that time she lived at the Whatiwhatihoe settlement near Pirongia, some distance from the area of conflict

Immediately after the wars, about 1864, she saw her first pakehas. They were Government troops stationed at Alexandra, a few miles from Whatiwhatihoe.

“I sold them corn for their horses,” she said. She believed ; she had lived so long because she had died once, but her spirit; had been sent back to her body. If there is such a thing as a generation gap, she has no idea of it

She loves to watch television now and her favourite programme is the teen-age pop show, “C’mon.”