Gisborne Photo News Photo ‘Pakeke’ and club leaders at the Waihirere dress rehearsal in Gisborne last January: left to right, Bill Kerekere, Peter Kaua, Rongo Halbert, Arnold Reedy, Ben Brown, Henry Ngata, Leo Fowler, Heta Te Kani. Bill Kerekere and Waihirere Club by ‘Waitangi’ There is an old saying, which is as generally true as most old sayings, to the effect that ‘no man is indispensable’. Bill Kerekere, President of the Waihirere Maori Club, and one of its founders, would be the first to agree that it's a true saying, but you wouldn't get much support from the Club for the idea that it applied to Bill. Not as far as the Club is concerned at any rate.

Twelve Years Bill Kerekere and the Waihirere Maori Club have been one and indivisible ever since the Club was formed over 12 years ago. It was formed at Waihirere, a small kaianga of the Aitangaamahaki tribe, about eight miles from Gisborne, and originally it was merely the nucleus for a haka group to represent Wai hirere in the newly formed Gisborne Annual Maori Competitions. Since then the Club has gone a long way, gained a lot of experience and some measure of reputation, culminating in its recent honour of representing Maoridom in the entertainment of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Waitangi. The Club moved its headquarters from Waihirere to Gisborne in the first year or two of its existence. Since then it has been open to any Maori (or any pakeha for that matter), and over the years the membership has included people from almost every tribe in New Zealand. While it did not set up specifically as a youth club, most of its members have been young Maori people who have come to live in Gisborne from the country. The Club has not had an easy time. Until recently it met in whatever rooms were available and during periods when the Club was practising for competitions or for concerts, or for some Maori function, it has had to fall back on the homes of its members. Yet it managed to keep going, winter and summer year after year. Occasionally like all clubs, it had periods of doldrums when interest flagged and it was kept going only by its core of older and regular members. There were times when the response was disappointing. You could only get a scattering of people, a handful, and the older members wondered if it was worth the trouble, the time and the worry. At other times, when there was a trip in the offing, there was a rush of old and new members. Looking back over the years it has been well worth it. There must be scores of young people, scattered over the