Hone Tuwhare

Te Ao Hou, September 1964, Page 4

Hone Tuwhare by Peter Fairbrother Hone has a big smile to welcome you to his home. His hands reach forward and beckon you in. That smile is something you'll always remember. Ask him a serious question; his brow furrows and he ponders. You know his answer in his very own, not what he has heard other people say, or what ‘everyone’ is saying—Hone speaks his own opinions. Long after you visit, too, you remember his voice, deep and soft. These things you remember, his happy greeting, his serious thinking, and his voice. Hone lives now at Te Mahoe. His house is one of the Ministry of Works cottages for the men engaged in building the Matahina Dam. One side of the living room has a book-case full to overflowing with books—books on old New Zealand, books by modern authors, books by Russian and French authors, and of course, the novels of Noel Hilliard, Hone's close friend. Hone Tuwhare was born in Kaikohe in 1922. He has links with Ngatikorokoro and Ngatitautahi hapu of Ngapuhi. After his mother died, when he was five years old, the family

moved to Auckland where his step-mother still lives. His formal education was completed at Beresford Street School, Freeman's Bay, Auckland. After leaving school at fifteen, he served his apprenticeship as a boilermaker with New Zealand Government Railways at Otahuhu.