very much in demand by all home gardeners. She would toil for days and even go without herself, so that everyone could have a share. The two words ‘communication’ and ‘involvement’ are often discussed these days, especially in Christian circles. Her infectious laughter was a delight and everyone who heard laughed also even if they didn't know what the joke was about. In a gathering of several hundred people, those who knew her would just say, ‘Ko Kawe tera a kata ana’. Perfect strangers were soon her closest friends after only a few moments conversation. Here then was the art of communication, and involvement! Her sense of humour and style of telling jokes, Maori myths or riddles, were so popular that at any Maori meeting or Pokai she was soon the centre of attraction, her countenance always a ray of sunshine, making others happy just to be in her company. To her family she was not only a wonderful wife and mother, but a teacher in the simple things of life which money cannot afford. She taught that life, body and soul, are sacred and beautfiul, to be treasured, to be revered. Some relatives are left with great riches, or houses and lands, but she has left behind the wealth of her example in every phase of life. This then, is why she is affectionately known to us, as ‘The First Lady’ or ‘Our First Lady’. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, you have travelled the road of life which I set before you. Now it is time to come home.’

KATENE HEPI by Con O'Leary When Ngatoroirangi, who arrived on Te Arawa canoe and founded Ngati Tuwharetoa, cast a tree from a hill, the waters of the sacred lake, Kopua Kanapanapa (Taupo), sprang forth. It was a tree that felled Hohepa Katene Hepi on December 1 and with his death a lake of tears sprang from the eyes of relatives and friends. When a large party of mourners took him from the marae at Kauriki, where he had lain, to Whanganui, the burial ground of his ancestors in Western Bay, the two lakes, the sacred and the symbolic, were one. Haere, Katene. Haere. There Katene, the eldest son of Te Kahurangi Hepi, leading elder of the Parekawa subtribe of Ngati Tuwharetoa, was buried alongside his grandfather Hepi Te Huia. He was born 46 years before at Bulls on the site of the recently opened meeting house. Parewahawaha. Also a member of the Pare-wahawaha sub-tribe of Heeni Hepi (née Gotty), a direct descendant of the poetess Puhiwahine. Educated at Waihi Convent, Taupo, he was one of the most experienced bushmen in the King Country and had worked as a mill manager and a bush contractor. A few weeks before his death he had been elected a member of the committee of the 16,000 acre Hauhungaroa 2C Incorporation. Katene was dedicated to serving the interests of the owners in the bush his family, with others, had pioneered for the incorporation, which now combines timber and farm development. He had become accomplished in whai korero and it was tragic that he should be struck down just as he was coming into his own. He was killed in the Hauhungaroa bush. His death has made others the more determined to carry out the ideals for which he strove. He leaves his parents, brothers Ngahianga, Patoropa, Hurihanga, Korota, Rawiri, Tiniwaata and Ruka, sisters, Rihi Puhiwahine, Waiparemo, Rerehau, Ngarino, Punateahu and Matetu-O-Rihi, his wife Rai (née Amorangi) and 17 children of whom the eldest is Puau (Bernard). A devout Catholic, he worked hard to provide his children with the best in education. On the news of his death Father T. Curton of Taumarunui went into the bush to anoint him. Father D. Horrigan of Waihi said requiem mass at Kauriki. Father J. Van Tilborg, a friend, came from Whangarei to stay in the whare puni, lead prayers and whai korero before the cortege left. Father P. O'Connor of Ohakune also attended the last rites. Attendances at Kauriki were large with the 200-seat whare kai holding from three to seven sittings for each meal. Mourners came from Christchurch, Wellington, Palmerston North, Bulls, Wanganui, Marton, Mangakino, Taupo, Hamilton, Auckland and other places. The people of four areas—Waihi, Kauriki, Takapou, Tiraha and Whanganui—advanced claims he be buried there. His children chose Whanganui, a place he himself had cherished. He had surveyed the road through the Whakarawa Block (Hauhungaroa 3A, 2A and 2B) to the bay, previously accessible only by