LATE MR COATES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1943, Page 3

LATE MR COATES

BURIAL AT MATAKOHE IN GRAVE ADJOINING THAT OF HIS PARENTS. LARGE OFFICIAL & PUBLIC ATTENDANCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 1. In the little churchyard of Matakche Church this afternoon, the body of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates was laid to rest in a grave adjoining that of his .mother and father. Up on that hill overlooking the rolling country of his boyhood home and the wide stretches of the upper Kaipara Harbour were gathered pakeha and Maori who had known him since his birth 65 years ago. They also gathered at the roadside, at farm gates and at townships along th? route with heads bared in respect. Shops were closed and all attention was on tins one happening of the day. At intervals along the road sc'i.'.ol children were lined up. The big?/-"- of these gatherings was at Wellsford, where high school pupils hundreds strong lined the route for about two hundred yards. The arrangements were perfectly timed. The hearse bearing the casket had departed early from Auckland, and was followed after an interval by the many cars of the official party. At 12 o’clock the hearse had arrived at the Arahura Read junction about a mile from the churchyard. Here the casket was transferred once more to a gun carriage and a slow march to the graveside was begun. A long.line of territorials formed a guard of honour, which was continued inside (he churchyard by Home Guardsmen. Preceding the gun carriage with its casket and its covering of a New Zealand Ensign and Maori mat and the New Zealand officer’s hat and sword of the late Minister was an escort of soldiery and the Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Alongside the gun carriage walked the Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition, and other prominent colleagues of Mr Coates. Then came a long procession headed by the representative of the Governor-Gener-al. At the gate of the churchyard the casket was carried into the tiny church where the first service, a private one attended only by members of the family, the Prime Minister and the Govern-or-General’s representative, was held. . The wailing cries of a group of Maoris heralded the opening of the official ceremony as the casket was carried from the church to the grave. Before the recittal of the burial service, the Rt. Rev. W. J. Simkin, Bishop of Auckland, referred to the very high regard in which Mr Coates was held not only in New Zealand but overseas. A firing party was ready and three times shots rang out over the grave. For fully an hour after the ceremony mourners filed past the grave to pay their last respects and ex-service men, of whom there was a large muster in khaki and mufti, each dropped a poppy upon the coffin. A statement concerning the arrangements for the funeral was made to the

Press representatives subsequently by Mr Coates’ brother, Mr Rodney Coates, on behalf of the family. He said the Government in the first place had offered burial in one of the centres of population comparable with that of the late Mr Massey. The family, however, had expressed the wish that the interment should be at Matakohe and that it should be as simple as the Government considered to be in keeping with the dignity of the State and with respect for Mr Coates' services to the community. This request had-been made in consideration for the bereavement and distress which the war had brought upon many homes.