TIKITIKI.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15774, 15 March 1922, Page 9

TIKITIKI.

The Prime Minister brought with him line weather, and the day he arrived at Tikitiki could not have been improved on. The Waiapu Valley looked its best, as though it were posing for the Prime Minister's special benefit. I hope as a result of the visit the East Coast will now be able to get its proper share of die distribution of the loaves and fishes.

Mr. K. S. Williams, M.P., who piloted the Prime Minister on ins Coast trip, in his address to the natives, referred to his guest "as the man with the money-bag." Mr. Massey did not understand what caused the natives to laugh, for Mr. Williams' speech was given in Maori, and was not interpreted. It seems Matini Koia, who was drowned at the mouth of the Wainpu river, was not a good swimmer. His boat had drifted away from the bank of the river, and whilst swimming after it he probably became exhausted and sank. The next morning, when his body was found washed upon an island which had been formed by the sea at the mouth of the river, the boat had. not gone out to sea, but was sti'd between the island and the shore, ami it- was while attempting to recover it that Matini lost his life.

Within a few hours after Matini's drowning two of his brothers-in-law narrowly escaped tho same fate whilst attempting to cross the Waiapu. Further up the river at Botokautuku another native named Pitau just escaped with his life. His horse rolled over, and the rider was carried down the river for some considerable distance before he luckily struck the shore.

The Matakaoa County was well represented at the reception to the Prime Minister. At lunch tho Ministerial party with the Matakaoa County councillors and others were guests at the Tikitiki boardinghouse. Tho rest of the Europeans (and there was a considerable number of them) were also given "buekshee" lunch in the hall, where Mrs. A. T. Ngata and her assistants- had provided a good meal. The hundreds of natives were entertained at the pa. The Maori has his faults, and many of them, but stingyttess is not one. I think only the gen-erous-minded Maori could ever think and at sWh times as these of entertaining a large number of visitors on an occasion which was no more the business of the local natives than the visitors.—Own Correspondent.