SIR APIRANA NGATA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 73, 15 January 1947, Page 3

SIR APIRANA NGATA

MAORI TRIBUTE PROPOSED A movement to recognise the services of Sir Apirana Ngata to his people has been initiated by several leading former officers of the Maori Battalion, with which Sir Apirana was closely associated from its inception, and proposals were further discussed at tribal meetings during the holiday season. It is understood that the proposals are that a gift should be made to Sir Apirana, and that he should be the guest of honour at a series of functions, one possibly at Rotorua, another on the East Coast, a third in Hawke’s Bay, and possibly one in Wellington, so that all sections of the Maori people could pay tribute to his life’s work. Sir Apirana, who is now 72 years of age, first entered Parliament in 1905, and remained there until 1943. He unsuccessfully contested his old seat, Eastern Maori, at the recent general elections. Apart from his land settlement schemes, regarded as outstanding in the economic history of the Maori people, he is an acknowledged authority on all phases of Maori culture. He has been responsible for the erection of more than 20 wharewhakaire, or carved houses of assembly scattered throughout the North Island. He has written extensively on Maori history, customs and poetry, and of late he has been engaged on the revision of the Maori Bible, and in translating into English his own standard work, “Nga Moteatea.”