THE BROKEN LINK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3894, 26 April 1937, Page 4

THE BROKEN LINK

NOTED MAORI PASSES. The death occurred at Taupo on Saturday of Mrs Taima Hinepart Rickit, widow of Mr Joseph Rickit and a member of the line known in Maori lore as “ Te Rere Tanea-Ara-ngi ” (Migrated from Heaven). Mrs Rickit was a descendant of the paramount chief and priest Ngataroirangi, and was a chieftainess of the Tuhourangi tribe of the Arawa Confederation of Tribes. She was born 78 years ago at Wairoa, on Lake Tarawera, and had been living in Taupo for the last 56 years. Her late husband was a member of the Armed Constabulary. At the time of the Tarawera eruption in 1886 Mrs Rickit was at Wairoa, and she was one of the last survivors of the tragedy. After the first eruption she seized one of her children. picked up the family’s iron kettle, and is reputed to have run all the way to Rotorua. The kettle is still a prized possession of the family. Mrs R.ckit was a great-grand-daughter of Hori Te Ngahue, who was baptised on his death-bed by the Governor, Sir George Grey. A picture of this incident is now housed in the Auckland Old Colonists’ Museum. Deceased is survived by six daughters, four sons, thirty grand-child-ren, and ten great-grand-children. The funeral will be held to-morrow afternoon, and the service is to be conducted by the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Right Rev. F. A. Bennett.