WIREMU PAORA

Te Ao Hou, September 1955, Page 3

WIREMU PAORA The death occurred suddenly at his home in Auckland of Wiremu Paora, eldest son of the late Rev. Hauraki Paora Kawharu, paramount chief of the Ngatiwhatua and Tamaki tribes. Mr Paora was educated at the Auckland Grammar School (1906–10) where he was for three years a member of the first fifteen and a Captain in the school cadet Battalion. Three years after leaving school he qualified as a surveyor and later passed the difficult computer's examinations. Mr Paora was severely wounded when serving with the Pioneer Battalion in Word War I. After his return to New Zealand he studied engineering mathematics at Canterbury University College and rejoined the staff of the Lands and Survey Department. Before the completion of the Shrine of Remembrance in the Auckland Museum, Mr Paora spent many months, spread over a period of years, touring the Auckland province, checking the names of those of his Maori comrades-in-arms who fell in the Great War, thereby ensuring that all would have their names inscribed on the Shrine's Roll of Honour. After his retirement in Auckland in 1951, Mr Paora enthusiastically continued his activities, so far as failing health would allow, in promoting the welfare of his people; and at the time of his death he was preparing a scheme on a self-help basis for Maori housing, to supplement that administered by the Government.