HAERE KI O KOUTOU TIPUNA

Mr Hana Tamaka, O.B.E. South Taranaki's leading Maori spokesman, Mr Hana Taua Tamaka, O.B.E., died at Hawera on 8 August after a brief illness. He was 63. Chief of the Ngati-Ruanui sub-tribe, Mr Tamaka, like his father before him, the late Mr Awarua Tamaka, was a member of the Taranaki Maori Trust Board, and had been chairman for the last 10 years. Born in the Taiporohenui area, he spent his whole life in the district, farming there and at Ohangai. He was a director of the Ohangai Dairy Company for 15 years, a member of the Rangiatea Methodist Maori Trust, the Taranaki Museum Board, the Taranaki Patriotic Council and the Hawera Rotary Club, Mr Tamaka was a man of wide and varied interests, and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1958, for his service to the Maori people. After a service at the Taiporohenui Pa, attended by hundreds of Maoris from all over New Zealand, Mr Tamaka was buried at the tribal cemetery. Mr Tamaka leaves his wife, Mrs Whakamamairoa Tamaka, three daughters and a son, Reta (Mrs Maui, Hawera), Bella (Mrs Tutauha, Wellington), Manu (Invercargill), and Tawa (Mrs Teaotonga, Hawera). Five children predeceased him.

Mrs Oriwia Rehu Mrs Oriwia (Olive) Rehu, who played a leading role in the Arowhenua Maori Pa's affairs for many years, died suddenly at her home in early August. A former president of the Arowhenua Maori Women's Welfare League, and president for nearly 30 years of the Arowhenua Red Cross, Mrs Rehu had lived at the pa for 46 years since her marriage. Mrs Rehu was born in Otaki, a member of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe. She was a daughter of Mr and Mrs Pihopea Hawea, and during her life in Arowhenua was an acknowledged expert on the Maori language. She taught Maori language, arts and crafts, and Bible class at the Arowhenua Maori School for some years, and also conducted courses in Maori language at the Adult Education Centre in Timaru for a period. Keenly interested in all forms of Maori culture, Mrs Rehu was the composer of many Maori action songs used on special occasions at Arowhenua Pa, and she was always on the marae to welcome visitors on formal occasions. She was interested in the closer association of Maori and pakeha relations, and encouraged visits to the pa by neighbouring European organisations. Her two daughters, Ranui and Elizabeth, were among the first Maori pupils of Timaru Girls' High School, for Mrs Rehu was alive to the advantages of a good education, and she attended the inaugural meeting in Timaru of the Maori Education Foundation to which she continued to give active support. Both daughters became registered schoolteachers, and Elizabeth later look the leading female role in Bruce Mason's play The Pohutukawa Tree. Mrs Rehu is survived by her husband, Mr J. P. Rehu, and by two daughters, Ranui (Mrs J. Brooking) and Elizabeth (Mrs Murchie, Dunedin). There are 15 grandchildren.

Revd N. K. Kukutai, M.B.E. The death of Reverend Ngatete Kerei Kukutai, M.B.E., on 1 August has deprived the Maori people of an outstanding leader. Ngapaka, as he was familiarly known to many people both Pakeha and Maori, was a member and chieftain of the Ngatitipa subtribe of lower Waikato. He came of a line of chiefs whose names are familiar to students of the history of that area. In early manhood Mr Kukutai became a lay preacher of the Methodist Maori Mission. In the year 1934 he was received by the Mission as a full-time Home Missionary, and appointed to the King Country where he lived in Te Kuiti and served for many years. In the year 1941 he was ordained as a Maori Minister and he retired from full time employment in 1954 and returned to his home town of Tuakau. Mr Kukutai early identified himself with