Otaki

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 35, 27 August 1903, Page 5

Otaki

(From an occasional correspondent.)

It is with regret that I have to report the death of Hera te Puke, one of the last of the Otaki Catholic pioneers. In her younger days, says her brother, Piripi (Philip), she was a beauty (humarire), and a favorite leader of songs, and dances (hakas), on great occasions She was an inveterate smoker. She generally used the Maori tobacco (torori), but she never refused good cigars when they were offered to her occasionally. She had always been a most industrious native. Of late -years she was seen often at the presbytery, to where she had free access. But she would always make herself useful in the house or in the garden, and on the days of the school picnics she was accustomed to assist the Sisters. No wonder that everybody at Pukekaraka liked the good Hera. Hera was always anxious to make the acquaintance of all the priests and missionaries who were paying a visit to Otaki. She felt, quite disappointed if she missed any of them. Baptised in the very beginning of the mission in the church built on the Pukekaraka hill, she had always been a faithful member of the Church. Ever since I came to know her 18 years ago, her fervor as a Catholic had never lessened. When she had the opportunity she would not miss Mass even on week days, and she was always regular at confession and Communion. She was ever ready to bring the young Maori children to be baptised, and to stand as godmother. Three years ago she lost her hus-band, Perenara (Bernard), and since then had been in receipt of the old age pension. A few months ago, having lost her daughter, Miriana, she grieved very much indeed, and perhaps her sorrow (pouri) brought on the serious illness which attacked her shortly after. Her last days on earth were brightened by the great public demonstration of the Maoris, held on account of the death of Leo XIII., the meeting taking place in the very house where she was lying. She died on August sth, having received piously the last Sacraments. To the very last she answered

most fervently the prayers said by the priest and the catechist. Her tangi was a very large one, the natives having gathered from most of the villages along the coast as far as Wanganui. On Saturday she had, in the church she had loved so much, the most solemn Catholic funeral ever seen in Otaki. The elaborate decorations made on account of the death of Pope Leo XIII., had been left standing to do honor to our humble but faithful daughter of the Church. The Sisters and the choir (composed mostly of Maoris or half-castes), sang appropriate hymns, and the ' Dead March ' was played on the organ. The church (though iately enlarged) was too small to hold the crowd of Maoris who had come to accompany Hera to her last resting place in the Catholic cemetery alongside of her daughter.— R.l. P.