A MAORI FUNERAL

Evening Star, Issue 14438, 6 August 1910, Page 2

A MAORI FUNERAL

[SPECIAL TO TUF. Stak.l CHRISTCHURCU, August 5. The death of. Mchara Maaka, the youngest daughter oViloani Maaka, native land agent at Tuahiwi, North Canterbury, was the occasion of the largest assemblage of Maoris held in tho pah during the past ten years. Miss Mehara Maaka was a bright and amiable girl, and a great favorite in the village. At? a pupil at the Tuahiwi Native School she won a free placo at Hukarere College, but preferred to continue her studies at Tuahiwi. Aftera short illness she died at the age of twenty-one. The great tangi was due partly lo tho fact that Maaka is a descendant' of one of the first families of the Ngai Te Ahuriri hapu, and partly to tho fact that-there were a number of mourners from the North Island. A very large number of representative Maoris from the South Island assembled at the Runanga Hall, where the body lay. The hall was prepared as a great sleeping room. Straw to a depth of 18in and 7ft wide was laid along each side of the hall, with a clear passage from the door to the stage, on which was the coffin, surrounded by a great array of photographs and oil paintings of dead members of the deceased's hapu. Tho club room was turned into a cookhouse, the Council Chamber into a store room, and the annexe to the hail into a dining hall. Many valu.iolc inula were taken to the pah, and the s-'-one, upon the arrival of seventy-two visitors, was most impressive. The pall-bearers were all leading men in their hapus.