SACRED FUNERAL Tangi for Te Puea The sacred mourning for Te Puea by the Maori tribes lasted five days and five nights. From Monday, October 13, when Te Puea died, until the burial the following Sunday, Maori people all over the island were on the move. Although the habit of leaving work to visit tangis is dying out, the paying of last respects to Te Puea was felt by the people to be a sacred duty. Employers generally showed great sympathy. Many of the people who paid their respects returned to their farms or occupations, and joined the mourners again at the week-end. During this week it was impossible to find a bus in the Waikato district in which there were not some ladies dressed in black, whose heads were covered with the green leaves of mourning. The whole of the Maori people had their thoughts centred on the lady of Ngaruawahia, who now lay in state after burning out all the energy she had in work of great wisdom for her people. All recognised that the deepest homage was due to this rare and splendid lady. Te Puea—or Princess Te Puea: the appellation stuck because it was so appropriate—had shown the Waikato people the way out of a very hard situation. Following the words of her grandfather, King Tawhiao, she had, with a great natural sense of leadership, built Turangawaewae Pa at Ngaruawahia out of, literally, noth-