MEMORIAL ARCH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19982, 14 December 1934, Page 3

MEMORIAL ARCH

SOUTHERN MAORI SOLDIERS

FOUNDATION STONE LAID

Yesterday afternoon saw the first official step taken toward* the erection of the memorial arch to the Maoris of the South Island killed in the Great War and to Te Maiharoa, the founder of the Arowhenua Pa, when the foundation stone was laid by Mr E. T. Tirikatene M.P. for Southern Maori, at the site beside the Main South Road just south of the Temuka river.

Mr T. D. Burnett M.P.. with Mrs and Miss Burnett, was present and the gathering included the Mayor of Temuka (Mr A. W. Buzan) and Mayoress and Councillors, beside the president of the Temuka Returned Soldiers Association (Mr J. King) and members, children of the Arowhenua Native School and the public. The building had been commenced, a place having been left for the commemorative stone to be placed in one of the two main pillars facing into the archway.

The preparations having been completed, the ceremony commenced with a procession of wahines of the Ratana faith led by the local pastor, the Rev. H. Te Reinga. The procession formed a half circle about the memorial and the guests of honour were grouped almost opposite them. The service commenced with prayer and an oration by the Rev. Te Reinga. after which Mr Tirikatene, in full tribal dress, delivered the chief address of the day in Maori. For the benefit of the pakeha members of the gathering he then gave the following translation of his remarks: A Tribute of Love. “Salutations to both Maori and pakeha. to all those who have made possible this memorial, to the donors and to the friends who have endured against such odds, in the shape of the depression, to make possible this tribute of love and memory. I salute you conscious of the honour that has been bestowed on me as a boy born and bred in the South Island, as a descendant of the great people of our race, as a representative of the people in his Majesty’s Parliament of New and as the privileged representative of that leader of the Maori people who was unable to be present, Mr Ratana. The stone will symbolise one of the most beautiful and magnificent attributes of man, the spirit of sacrifice. It is being laid in respect to and in honour of one of the old leaders of our race who has passed beyond the soft vale of life; one who was a leading tohunga of his people—in modern times he would have been called a prophet for he foretold events which later came to pass—Te Maiharoa. Some of you present are more fully acquainted with Te Maiharoa and his prophecies which he had related to his people and \khich had been heard by those of your fathers and brothers now gone beyond. Later we had the sacrifice of those Maori men who gave their lives for their country, and whose bodies are buried in far away countries. They have lived their lives on this earth but their souls live on with God. And to think that they are living in a land where there are no troubles, no anxieties and no pains must surely give those of us left here on earth deep consolation. The love that is associated with the erection of this arch goes out even to our pakeha brother. I feel quite justified at the moment in saying that there is a steadily growing feeling of love and friendship not only between the different faiths of our own people but between Maori and pakeha.” Mr Tirikatene concluded with an apology for the absence of Mr Ratana who had been so keenly interested in the erection of the memorial and an expression of thanks to the pakehas who were carrying on the difficult work of leadership of the people of New Zealand.

The citizens of Temuka were proud of their association with the Maoris of Arowhenua with whom they lived and grew up side by side, said, the Mayor. In 1914 the call to arms had been answered by the Maori who had laid down his life beside his white brother. He congratulated the committee in charge of the memorial building on their enterprise and wisdom in choosing one of the best sites in the South Island for their memorial. He and the Mayoress had been delighted to attend and he hoped that the memorial would stand for many years to come. Brotherhood of Man. Mr Burnett greeted the Maoris as descendants of the Ngatimamoe and Ngai Tahu tribes and the descendants of the people who fell in defence of Kaiapohia Pa so many years ago. When one considered that there were some 3,000 Maoris in the South Island at the time of the war and that some 220 had served their country overseas, a proportion of them going never to return, it made one marvel at the brotherhood of man. It was the Great War which brought out two new conception of brotherhood. Only some 14 years before the Boers had fought the British at the Cape and it had been but 45 years since the Maori so bitterly fought for the retention of his own fair land while the white man strove to make it a place where white men might live, yet there they were fighting side by side and dying for the country that they both had loved. It was a great thought that the two races, coming from the same stock somewhere in the centre of Europe and having wandered to the two extremities of the earth, growing apart, should have been brought together again. Both races were determined that the country should be the best that man could make. It had given him very great pleasure to be present at the ceremony, and he hoped that the memorial would long endure to symbolise the brotherhood of the races.

Mr King assured the Maoris that not only those who gave their lives on the battlefields of the Great War were being remembered. There was a welcome waiting for every Maori digger along with his white brother and he would receive just a good help and treatment as the pakeha. Mrs W. Mihaka then presented a miniature trowel in silver to Mr Tirikatene who laid the stone, after which Mr Tirikatene said: “To both Maori and pakeha we declare this foundation ston° of the memorial to be laid with love,’ faith and goodwill and the happiest of associations. May the speeches that have been made this afternoon be embodied with the sentiment behind this arch for ever and ever.”

Mrs Mihaka then added words of congratulation, emphasising the goodwill with which the memorial had been erected by the Maori people of Arowhenua. Afternoon tea was then served at the Maori Hall and last evening a dance was held to celebrate the occasion.