LATE MR COATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 2

LATE MR COATES

BURIAL AT MATAKOHE IMPRESSIVE TRIBUTES (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 1. In the little churchyard of the Matakohe Church this afternoon the body of Mr J. G. Coates was buried in a grave adjoining that of his mother and father. There was a large assemblage of pakehas and Maoris, who had known him since his youth, and small groups also gathered at the roadside. at farm gates, and at townships along the route, with heads bared in respect. At intervals along the road school children were lined up. The hearse bearing the casket' from Auckland was followed after an interval by the many cars of the official party. At 12 o’clock the hearse had arrived at the Arahura road junction, about a mile from the churchyard. Here the casket was transferred once more to a gun carriage, and the slow march to the graveside was b#gun. A long line of territorials formed a guard of honour, which was continued inside the churchyard by Home Guardsmen. Preceding the gun carriage with its casket and its covering of a New Zealand ensign and Maori mat and the New Zealand officer’s hat and of the late Minister, was an escort of soldiers and the band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Alongside the gun carriage walked the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, members of the Cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, and other prominent colleagues of Mr Coates. Then came a long procession headed by the representative of the Governor-General. At the gate of the churchyard the casket was carried into the tiny church, where the first service, a private one, attended only by members of the family, the Prime Minister, and the Governor-General’s representative. Air Commodore. M. W. Buckley, was held. The wailing cries of a group of Maoris heralded the opening of the official ceremony as the casket was carried from the church to the grave. Prior to the recital of the burial service the Right Rev. W. J. Simkin, Bishop of Auckland, referred to the very high regard in which Mr. Coates was held, not only in New Zealand, but overseas. The firing party was ready. Three times the shots rang out over the grave; three times there was the wailing of Maori cries, and then a final sad note. A statement concerning the arrangements for the funeral- was* made to press representatives subsequently by Mr Coates’s brother, Mr Rodney Coates. * on behalf of the family. Mr Coates said the Government in the first place had offered a burial in one of the centres of population comparable with that of Mr Massey. The family, however, had expressed a wish that the interment should be at Matakohe, and that it should be as simple, as the.. Government considered to be in keening with the dignity of the State and with respect for Mr Coates’s services to the community. This requestfpad been made in consideration for* the bereavement and distress which the war had brought to many homes. Further expressions of sympathy received oy Mr Fraser include messages from the Arawa Confederation of Tribes the Slavonic Council of New Zealand, the Wellington branch of the. Navy League, the Ngatiwai Maori tribe, the Wellington Hebrew congregation, the Canterbury District Committee of the Communist Party, the Union Steam Ship Company, the British General Electric Company, and several local bodies.

The Green Island Borough Council, at its meeting last night, decided to send letters of sympathy to Mrs Coates and her family and to the Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, on the death of Mr J. G. Coates.