DEATH AT SEA.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13106, 15 May 1911, Page 1

DEATH AT SEA.

TANGI SCENES IN TROPIC NIGHT. A Palmerstonian en route to England by the Otranto, the liner on | which Maggie Papakura's party travelled Home, sends from Colombo a pathetic 'account of the death of one of the troupe. He says; "The hitherto uneventful voyage of the Otranto '' from Fremautle to Colombo was interrupted in tragic fashion on the . night of April oth by the sudden death ot one of tiie leading members of Maggie Papakura's troupe of Maoris, who ure en route to England after their recent Australian season. Eight of the nine days occupied in the passage had elapsed without incident. Then, after tour days of intensely tropical weather, there came a sad event which profoundly moved every member of the ship's company, who numbered well over a thousand souls, representing some fifteen or twenty nationalities. Aparo Terawhio, one of the older Maoris, had been indisposed since the Otranto left Hobart, the symptoms indicating pulmonary trouble. He appeared to improve, however, and indeed there was no moie intelligent or interesting Maori on board than genial Aparo. On the sth lie complained of illness, but was still cheerful. The blow fell with startling suddenness in the evening. Aparo was found in his cabin in extremis. He was removed to the deck, but succumbed in half an hour The poignant grief of the Maori party may be better imagined than doscribed. The body was removed to the poop deck, and there the customary tangi followed. The weird, high pitched wailing of the women, and the oarnost eulogiuins of the men, delivered with all the Maori wealth of diction and dramatic action, continuing throughout the night and strangely impressing those passengers who were not from the land of the Maori The natives desired to take the mortal remains of their comrade back to his beloved Isles, but the delay to the ship that would be caused thereby boing represented to them they consented to a burial at sea. Accordingly the last sad rites were performed and the body committed to the deep in tl c early morning, just as the lights of Colombo were observed winking and sparkling in the dim distance. "The European passengers were no less sincere than the Maoris in their grief. Aparo Tcrowhio had by his sportsmanlike actions and pleasant manner made many friends. He w;;s a son of Sophia, tiie famous Rotorua, guide, the story of whose exploits during the period of the Tarawe a eruption is a part of the history . f the Dominion, and traced his gonealo--1 gical tree back for twenty-five generations past, indeed, the "time of the great migration from Hawaiki, the fabled home of the Maori. He leaves a wife and two children, all of whom are members of the Papakura troupe. The immediate cause of death whs found to be cerebral hemorrhage. Aparo was a valuable member of the troupe on account of his musical gilts. He played in the Maori Band, and w:is a singer of some ability."