Moriori link dies with Mr Solomon

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 13

Moriori link dies with Mr Solomon

PA Ashburton One of the last close links with the Moriori race. Thomas Tutanekai (Bully) Solomon, has died in Ashburton. He was a son of the last full-blooded Moriori, the late Mr Tommy Solomon, of the Chatham Islands. Mr Tommy Solomon died in 1933, and his descendants will press on with plans to erect a statue on the Chathams to his memory and that of the extinct Moriori. The statue was Mr Thomas Solomon’s suggestion, and he was looking forward to seeing it unveiled in about 18 months. He had a deep interest in probing the history of the Moriori of the Chathams. He was sought out by museum authorities in efforts to shed further light on the history of the race, and his descendants continue this work in association

with the national appeal to raise funds to build the statue of his father. There are now only two half-blood Moriori descendants surviving: Mrs Nigamare Patterson of Bluff and Mr Charlie Solomon of Temuka. There are, however, several hundred part-blood-Moriori descendants in New Zealand and in the Chathams. The New Zealand descendants plan to attend the statue unveiling ceremony. Mr Thomas Solomon was born in the Chathams, and left there in the early 1930 s aged about 12, to settle in New Zealand. As a young man, however, he went to

the Chathams and spent about 20 years managing the Solomon family farm there. He returned to New Zealand, becoming a freezing worker, and bushman in the off-season. Committees have been formed throughout New Zealand to raise the $46,000 it will cost to build the statue to the last Moriori. Mrs Ysabel Amalfitano, a board member of the fund sub-committee in Ashburton, said $6500 had been raised. She said the $46,000 had to be raised within 18 months. A mould for the Solomon statue was complete and an offer made to freight the statue free to the Chathams.