A PROLONGED TANGI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 281, 19 April 1913, Page 3

A PROLONGED TANGI.

MOURNING LASTS FOR TWO MONTHS. REMARKABLE GATHERING. Auckland, April 16. An unusually prolonged tangi at a Maori pa about midway between Ohiikune and Raetihi is creating a good deal of comment in the district. A native died there two months ago, whereupon his father found himself the host for ever-growing parties of Maori sympathisers. They began to arrive from all directions in buggies and on horseback, several even tramping out to the pa from the station at Ohakune. The gathering has not yet dispersed. The tangi is proceeding in an open paddock by the roadside in front of the meeting-house, and numbers of Maoris are to be seen reclining in various poses on the ground, on stacks of timber, in wheelbarrows, or on water-tanks, listening to one of their number, who, an umbrella in his right liand to lielp emphasise his points, holds forth for hours in expatiation, no doubt, of the host's qualities. Three flags are suspended half-mast in the centre of the paddpck. Some rough whare-like contrivances down by the bank of a creek shelter the wahines, who placidly smoke briar pipes or cigarettes, and perform culinary and laundry operations. Dogs and children, the latter in gorgeous shawls, prowl in and out of the picture, and the native mats of the tribe hang out in the sun for an airing, together with a heap of blankets. Away in one corner of the paddock stands a newly-built tomb of concrete, with an air-tight doorway. Here reposes the corpse. No attempt has been made to inter the remains beneath the I ground, and two or three times since the tangi opened the mausoleum has been opened and the dead man has been brought out for further mourning attentions.

Whether or not the cost of this prolonged tangi will in time impoverish the old Maori who is footing the bill Js hard to say. His first invoice for groceries at the outset of the function is said to have been £3OO. However, from the way in which the various buggies and traps are lying around covered with tarpaulins, and the fact that the adjoining paddock contains many horses wearing a peaceful look of undisturbed holidaymaking, it would seem that the gathering has forgotten to disperse.