MAORI BURIAL CUSTOMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 35

MAORI BURIAL CUSTOMS.

A TRIBAL DISPUTE. AUCKLAND, May 26. Regarding the recent exhumation of : the body of the Maori chief Honana from the "royal" burial ground on Taupiri Mountain, the nurse who attended Honana during his illness, which terminated fatally on April 26. states that the deceased chief was of " royal **• blood, as his mother belonged to tha Ngati-Mahuta tribe, and hie father was a chief of the Tainui tribe, from Raglan. Naturally, she says, Honana clung to his regal rangatira, and before his death he expressly stated that ho wished to be buried by the side of the Mahutas. Even before the old chief's death, it is stated, the Raglan Maoris tried to z.et him to agree to be buried among his father's ancestors of the Tainui tribe, but he told them it was his wish to rest with the " royal " Mahutas. After the tangi, as the dead chief was about to be put on a launch to be conveyed down the river to the burial ground at Taupiri, the Raglan Maoris, under their chief Para, collected and protested against Mahuta's people taking Honana, but eventually the body was placed on the launch and conveyed to the Taupiri '' royal " burial ground, where the interment took place. It was subsequent to this that Remana Nataxia went to Taupiri with two other Tainui Maoris, and exhumed the body. It was then conveyed to Raglan, where it wai reburied alongside the graves of hit father's ancestors. It is now understood that, at the instance of King Mahuta* Remana Nutana and his assitsants, who' exhumed the dead chief, have been sum? moned to appear in the Police Court/ at Ngaruawahia at an early date.