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Te Ao Hou, Spring 1954, Page 43

Continued from page 40) the Bishop of Aotearoa and the Governor-General. It seemed that some temporary trouble was experienced with the keys. The Government had given help and encouragement to the ceremony and speakers expressed gratitude to the Minister of Maori Affairs, the Hon E. B. Corbett, who had carried the ashes from Honolulu and had stayed with them throughout the four days of the journey to Okoki. On each marae he made his ceremonial oration, stressing always that contemplation of the life of this great man would give the younger generation an objective in their own lives and a beacon to lead them on to further progress. The Governor-General, in his speech at Okoki, forcibly reminded the people of what many are now realising only too well: that with the deaths of Sir Peter Buck and Sir Apirana Ngata an epoch had ended. Using well-known words the Governor-General asked the challenging question: “The old net is cast aside, but where is the new net?” Three years had elapsed between Te Rangihiroa's death and the final burial of his ashes. In the incidents with the challenger's taiaha and with the door of the vault many read a symbolising of the reluctance with which all saw the last of the great leaders of an age of leaders take his journey over the ocean of Kiwa to Hawaiki. That the student of the Polynesian voyagers was commemmorated by a giant bow of a canoe seemed very appropriate. It stands in a lonely piece of native forest, at one with the monuments of nature. The work of man and nature is happily merged, and it is fitting that Buck wanted, with all his heart, to be in this place, where his ancestors lived and died. The burial had brought three thousand Maoris together. His people, through the four days, felt as one with the great man who was dead, and shared the inspiration of this deep love for Maori culture which Te Rangihiroa represented.