WAIRARAPA CHIEF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1941, Page 10

WAIRARAPA CHIEF

PARTICIPANT IN SYDNEY CEREMONY. Noho Toki, a Ngati-Kahungunu chief, whose former home was at Papawai, near Greytown, was the central figure in a unique ceremony that took place recently in Sydney to commemorate the century just passed since New Zealand severed political relations with her Mother State of New South Wales. The gathering, which was held under the auspices of the Royal Australian Historical Society at History House, also commemorated the •signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and, in particular, the services of James Busby, until then British Resident, in that connection.

The exquisite feather mat worn by Noho Toki (who is the brother of Mrs Heke-ki-te-Reinga Boyd. of Moroa, Grey.town) was formerly in the possession of Princess Te Puea Herangi, of Ngaruawahia, and is regarded as a Waikato tribal heirloom, as was also the hei-tiki of greenstone that was suspended from his neck. Noho sang a waiata, an ancestral chant from the Wairarapa, to the memory of those who participated in the Treaty of Waitangi.

Mr Justice J. A. Ferguson, the president, when introducing the chief, referred to the fact that he fought at Gallipoli in the last war, and was a prominent member of the Sydney section of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association.

Noho Toki, who has been settled in Sydney for many years, is prominent as a singer. He come of a family of the first rank in the Lower Valley. Ninewa Heremaia. the principal chieftainess of that district, who resided at Tablelands, near Martinborough, was his aunt, and he is related to the Mahupuku and other chieftain families. The honour of delivering the address was accorded another former Wairarapa resident, Mr Eric Ramsden. Mr Ramsden dealt at length with Busby’s association with the Treaty, a work for which—as he was actually its framer —the former British Resident has never received adequate recognition.

Mr Ramsden is the author of “Busby of Waitangi,” the first biography of James Busby, which will be published within the next few weeks. “Not only does Busby deserve our gratitude for his work for the Treaty that bears the name of his estate, for it would never have been accepted but for the persuasion of himself and the missionaries,” he said, “but he deserves to be held in grateful memory by the Maori people, in particular. The initial governmental machinery that he inaugurated not only paved the way for the Treaty itself but in subsequent years many of the legislative proposals he then outlined, including Parliamentary representation, were acorded them.” Another ex-New Zealander present was Mr Alfred Hill, the composer. During the supper interval he played a number of the accompaniments of his own songs for Noho Toki’s singing, an interlude that was much appreciated by a large audience which included many New Zealanders.