Ruatoria To Honour First Maori V.C.

Northern Advocate, 1 October 1943, Page 5

Ruatoria To Honour First Maori V.C.

GISBORNE, Thursday. Traditional Maori welcomes, modified or extended to fit the occasion, will be given to the Governor-General (Sir Cyril Newall), the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) and other official visitors, at the ceremony of handing the Victoria Cross to Hamuera Ngarimu, father of the late Lieutenant Ngarimu, at Ruatoria on Wednesday. As this is the first Victoria Cross won by a Maori, the native people are excelling themselves in making the all-day function a suitable demonstration of their appreciation of the honour done to Lieutenant Ngarimu and to the race as a whole.

Maori pai'ties have been training for weeks past, and children also are playing an important part. A thousand school children will be drawn up to represent the letters V.C. ' The schools are being asked to assist in the Ngarimu Scholarship Fund, and a list of their contributions will be submitted to His Excellency, together with a loyal address. Among the welcoming speeches will be one from Mrs. Matcroa Reedy, an aunt of Lieutenant Ngarimu, who went overseas with Mrs. Reedy’s eldest son. Captain Hanara Reedy, who is a prisoner in Germany. The presentation of the Victoria Cross will take place in the afternoon following a service conducted by the Bishop of Aotearoa, and an address by an elder of the Ringatu Church, together with addresses by the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. Other decorations also to be bestowed are:—D.S.O., LieutenantColonels C. M. Bennett and F. Baker: 0.8iE.. Lieutenant-Colonel G. F. Bertrand and Warrant-Officer M. Mcßae: Military Cross and bar, Major Rangi Royal and Captain William Porter: Military Cross, Lieutenant J. P. Takao Barrett.

On behalf of owners in the East Coast native trust lands, the East Coast Commissioner has made a donation of £IOOO worth of 3 pgr cent, inscribed stock to the Ngarimu V.C. Scholarship Fund.