MAORI PRIDE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 4

MAORI PRIDE

TRIBUTE TO RACE VICTORIA CROSS AWARE) UNASSUMING SOLDIER - • ‘ . ’ ■ w . .’..-i.-; k.l e-A’ t.-: ; The pride of t.lio Maori race in receiving advice yesterday of 1 its first Victoria Cross award is tinged with regret at the loss of so fine a soldier as Lieutenant iMoanh-Nui-n-Kahva'- Ngarimu. oi: Kuntoria. The Maoris re--aid if as a lino trilinte not only to the Maori Battalion but also to the Maori race.

tVhen news of the award first reached Gisborne yesterday -morning, it travelled very quickly throughout the Maori members of the community in particular, and, strangely enough, the late . Lieutenant Ngavinmhs parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. Xgaritnu, were among the last to hear it;. Mr. and Mrs-; Ngarimu were in Gisborne yesterday morning, but did not know of the de* coration of their son until during the afternoon, when a friend met Mr. Ngarimu and expressed hi? jov at hearing the news. The late Lieutenant Ngarirng was a member of a well-known Ruatoria family. Born in the Ruatoria district 24 years ago. he was educated at the native school there and a!s° at Te Auto College, and subsequently engaged in farming on his father’s station. He was well known throughout the district, and even further afield, as an outstanding Rugby olayer, having turned out regularly with the Ruatoria team and earned East Coast representative honours. Enlisting in the early days of the war as a private, lie was drafted almost immediately to camp on February 28, 1940, and left New Zealand as a private in the first Maori contingent which sailed with the Second Echelon. He advanced further in rank while overseas_ and finally was orometed to commissioned rank in the field. A brother, ’Corporal Henry Ngarimu, also served overseas, fibut was recently 'invalided Ehdthe'.-'-''A cousin is Captain H. T; Reedy, of the Maori Battalion, who IS' now" a prisoner of war in Italy. Service in Greece Tf Lieutenant Ngarimu had given his correct age when he enlisted on .Fehruarv 5, 1940; he wtnild hot have sailed with- the Second Echelon. He gave ltis date of birth as April 7, 1918, making it a year before the actual date. ' In this he had the support of his father, who was recruiting the Maoris for the purpose of- forming ii battalion. Mr. Ngarimu regarding the enlistment of his own son as essential to the success of the recruiting rally. Mr. Ngarimu, besides being, a leading sheepfarmer of the Ruatoria- district, is one of the leading chiefs of the Ngatiporou tribe. ■ , .-' After leaving New Zealand and going to .England with the Second Echelon,. Lieutenant Ngarimu served in Greece and Crete, and'went through the campaigns in .North Africa, ultimately -meeting- his- death on March

Tall and lightly built, Lieutenant Ngarimu is described as.the average t-vpe of Maori from his district. "“He was just the ordinary kind of bov,” his father stated this afternoon when talking to a reporter, and apart from his football■ career Air. Ngarimu said there was nothing eventful about his son ’s life while he was working ou the farm Illicit home ia Ruatoria be-I'oi-e his enlistment.'