MAORI WOMAN’S COURAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1940, Page 2

MAORI WOMAN’S COURAGE

SEQUEL TO ACT OF BRAVERY. PRESENTATION OF MISPLACED CERTIFICATE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) GISBORNE. April 19. The posthumous presentation of the certificate of merit of the New Zealand Royal Humane Society to the son of the late Mrs Henerieta Temapara, of Tolaga Bay, for an act of bravery performed by his mother 31 years ago, formed a unique ceremony in the Native Land Court at Tolaga Bay. The certificate was awarded to Mrs Temapara in February, 1909, after- her rescue of an elderly Maori, Pore Kapa, from drowning in the Uawa River at Tolaga Bay. On January 1,1909, she heard calls from the Tolaga Bay side of the river at 8 p.m„ and plunged into the wide stream to swim across and seize Pore Kapa, who was struggling in deep water and in imminent danger of drowning. She was at the time the mother of a baby not more than a fortnight old. Mr H. P. de Montalk, of Tolaga Bay, represented the bravery shown by Mrs Temapara to the Royal Humane Society, which made the award of its certificate of merit. The certificate was forwarded to the corresponding secretary of the society in Gisborne for presentation, but it was lost sight of till recently, when a search of the municipal archives in Gisborne revealed its presence in a pigeon-hole. Mr W. M. Jenkins consulted with Native Land Court officials, who arranged for the presentation of the certificate to Mrs Temapara's eldest son.