was on December 9, 1895, at Te Karaka on the Hokianga river. Later, to make the name conform to the child, the name was changed to Josephine. From this came the contraction by which she is nationally known, Whina. Sometimes nowdays because of her extensive welfare work she is known as Awhina (help, befriend). Mrs Cooper's father was the well-known Te Rarawa chief, Heremia Te Wake, of Panguru (Hokianga) where his word was law. Her mother was Kore, who, though a woman of Te Rarawa, had Taranaki connections. Her principal tribal affiliation therefore is Te Rarawa; Ngati Manawa is her sub tribe. Mrs Cooper's formal education was slender and of interest now not so much because of the effect it had on her but because of the man who financed it—Timi Kara (Sir James Carroll). The little Te Wake girl had been attending the Panguru Maori school when her father approached Timi Kara for aid to get his daughter a good education. Timi's answer was: “Yes, she will be our girl too.” So the young Maori girl from the Hokianga backblocks was sent to St. Joseph's (Catholic) College, Napier. She was not, however, academically inclined and her school record is notable for the amount of mischief crowded into it more than the amount of study, though she did work quite hard. Once, out of sheer devilment to impress the others with her gameness she jumped off the highest diving board available, but lacking the knowledge of how to make such a jump successfully, was sick for many days after. She had no secondary education, finishing school with the attainment of her primary school proficiency. Some years after leaving school she contemplated becoming a nun and went to Napier on holiday with the idea of furthering that ambition while there, but changed her mind and went home. She is to this day, however, a leading lay catholic. After she returned home from Napier, she married, notwithstanding some tribal opposition, Richard Gilbert, a Whangarei Maori. The newlyweds lived with Whina's father and worked on his farm. Following her father's death came probably the leanest period of her life—a period which she now recalls with pride because of the achievements across the intervening years. With the settling up of her father's affairs the young couple returned to Whina's birthplace at Te Karaka and there built a nikau whare where the family, which included two children, lived. Those were hard, though in retrospect, somewhat glorious days of poverty, privation and struggle. The nikau whare was a grim shelter compared to her father's house. She recalls a pathetic incident now which typifies the plight of the family at that time. One day, returning from gum digging, they found that the family pig had broken through the nikau walls of their whare and had torn their only sack of flour to pieces, spreading the flour over some sand. The flour had to be salvaged and was used for bread. Mrs Cooper feels she can till taste the sand. But through hard work and good management the family began to prosper. Eventually they brought the fine house where they had lived with Whina's father. Later they brought a general store in Panguru. Mrs Cooper was in that shop for 18 years and she feels it was a good university to her. For in those years she became familiar with most of the problems facing her people as well as gaining an intimate knowledge of the people. She began to feel that her being well off while many others in the community were not, gave her little, if any pleasure. From that realisation she began her mission of helping others. About that time Sir Apirana was starting the land development schemes. Here then was the very outlet she was wishing for. Before development started in the north Whina went with the northerners to Rotorua where Sir Apirana showed them what was being done in Maori land development. In the evenings he used to ask them about what they had seen. He really examined them. Whina, being a woman could not of course, speak on the Arawa maraes to give her opinion but when the party was at the station at Rotorua, leaving for home, Sir Apirana asked her opinion. Her answer: “Give us the help (money) and we'll beat you.” Two weeks later she got a wire to say Sir Apirana was coming to the Hokianga. There he met all the people at Panguru and explained that he had come to take them up on Whina's boast. He told the people he had come with the “man in charge of the money bag.” How much did Panguru want? So land development began in the Hokianga. And the work went with a swing. Mrs Cooper still regards “the Old Man” with affection—really hero worship. She worked on his schemes, listend eagerly for his advice, took in all. She knew the Hokianga lands intimately, consequently she acted, in a way, as Sir Apirana surveyor. In Panguru a gang of 80 did community farm work, from one farm to the next—clearing, fencing, drainage. Mrs Cooper really feels she made good her Rotorua boast: “Give us the help and we'll beat you”—because the people did so much more work than was demanded in the contracts. It was course for their own benefit. They were great days, she recalls. “Working together we were so happy. There was a thrilling community spirit.” After this period, in association with her farming she took up breeding pedigree cows. This was in fulfilment of a long-held ambition to raise the standard of cows in the area. But