QUITE HAPPY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 706, 4 July 1929, Page 1

QUITE HAPPY

Woman Whom Maoris Spirited Away

NO DESIRE TO LEAVE

(From Our Otcn Correspondent) WHAKATANE, Today. The white woman who was spirited away from Lepperton some fifty years ago is living with her husband at Poroporo, a settlement about three miles from Whakatane.

Her name is Mrs. Ngoungou, and her present husband is a well-to-do native farmer. She lives very happily among the natives and has no wish to leave them. In the course of an interview she stated that she distinctly remembers the Maoris taking her in an open canoe to Whangarei. When she was about 16 years old she was married to a Maori chief and had two children. Her husband died and about thirty years ago she came to the Bay of Plenty district and ultimately settled at Poroporo, where sho married again. There were seven children of the second marriage, three of whom are living. Mrs. Ngoungou is a well-preserved woman, with a fair fresh complexion la spite of her years, but her hair is snowy white. Her eyes are large and clear and of a light blue colour with a faraway look in them. Although she did not have much education, she speaks English perfectly without any lapses in gram■“kr, while her voice is soft and beautfully modulated.

“No," she said, “I don’t wish to live among the white people. lam quite happy where I am with my family, i understand the natives and they understand me.” Mrs. Ngoungou added that when she was in the Whangarei district she stas never allowed to come into contact with any white people, and even M Poroporo for many years she had Mtle to do with the pakehas. Mrs. Ngoungou comes frequently 'bto the town of Whakatane with her t&tlve friends and relatives to do the sceasary shopping. She always apMv in a neat hlack dress and small ack hat In striking contrast to the gaudy colours worn by the stives. She is thus a conspicuous Personality among the natives.