LAST JOURNEY BEGUN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 84, 10 April 1943, Page 4

LAST JOURNEY BEGUN

LATE HON. P. K. PAIKEA DEPARTURE FROM RATANA in the dusk of a late autumn day, hundreds of Maoris, many of them wearing green to signify their mourning, assembled at the Ratana railway station last evening as the body of the late Hon. P. K. Paikea, Minister in Charge of the Maori War Effort, started on its long journey to the north. Mr. Paikea died after a sudden illness during a visit to the Wanganui district early in the week and will be buried at the family burial ground at Batley, nine miles from Maungaturoto, North Auckland. The journey to the north, started by rail last night, will be in three stages. At Marton the mortuary van, with four cars containing Maori mourners and the official party making the trip, was attached to a relief express from Wellington to Auckland. The body will be taken from the train at Ngaruawahaia this morning and will lie in state till to-morrow, when it will be conveyed to Orakei, Auckand, where it will remain till Monday morning. The funeral, which will probably be attended by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, and other Ministers of the Crown, will be held at Batley on Tuesday afternoon. From Wednesday onward, when the body was removed from Wanganui, Maoris from all parts of the Wanganui, Taranaki, and Wellington districts, and also from the South Island, assembled at Ratana. The gathering at the pa yesterday afternoon, when a funeral service, attended by Cabinet Ministers, was held in the Temple, was the largest since the death of Mr. T. W. Ratana, founder of the movement, m 1939. Present indications are that the ceremony at Batley next week will be the largest Maori funeral in the history of the Dominion. Indicating the esteem in which Mr. Paikea was held, and in appreciation of his work lor them, thousands of Maoris, representing every tribe in the Dominion, are expected to attend. Ministers of the Crown who visited Ratana yesterday and attended the service were the Hons. R. Semple, H. G. R. Mason, W. Nash, J. O’Brien and W. E. Parry. Mr. Mason, as acting Native Minister, is accompanying the official party to Ngaruawahia and North Auckland on behalf of the Government. Mr. E. T. Tirikatene, M.P. for Southern Maori, is also with the party. Mr. Fraser visited Ratana on Thursday. Following Maori custom, the casket will not be left unattended till it reaches the graveside. Maori members of the Army, Air Force and Home Guard are providing a continual guard of honour during the rail journey and at places where the body lies in state. At Auckland they will be supplemented by Maoris serving in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Representatives of the Taranaki, Wanganui, Wellington, Raukawa (Manawatu) and South Island Maoris travelled with the party accompanying the body north last night, and will be joined at Ngaruawahia by other tribes from the Waikato, Rotorua, Taupo, Auckland and East Coast districts.