BISHOP BENNETT IS LAID TO REST AT OHINEMUTU

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 September 1950, Page 5

BISHOP BENNETT IS LAID TO REST AT OHINEMUTU

ROTORUA, Last Night (PA)—They bore him across the Ohinemutu marea today and buried him under the sanctuary of the Church of St. Faith, that unique edifice that was raised chiefly by his enterprise. So Frederick Augustus Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa, came home to rest among his own people.

Before the casket was carried to its resting place, the lords spiritual and powers temporal, his widow, family, friends and a great concourse of New Zealanders estimated at 3000, gathered on the marae of Tama to do him honour and to say farewell. Traditional procedure was carried out when the official party headed by the Prime Minister (Mr Holland), the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Corbett), and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Fraser) were challenged and the mourning party of Maori women, dressed in black and wearing greenery on their heads sang a lament, as the visitors were escorted .to their places. The clergy, headed by Archbishop West-Watson, were seated on the steps of the' meeting-house flanking the casket. Addresses were delivered by Mr Holland, Mr Corbett, Mr Fraser, and Archbishop West-Watson, the Bishop of Waiapu, Rt. Rev. N. A. Lesser. and an address in English and Maori by the Rev. W. N. Panapa, of Taupo. The clergy led the procession across the marae to the church, where the body was left alone with the widow and members of the family, after which it was committed to a grave under the sanctuary by Bishop Lesser.