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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1943, Page 3

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IN GREAT FIGHTING HISTORY OF MAORI RACE. PREMIER’S TRIBUTE TO WINNER OF VICTORIA CROSS. (By Telegraph—Press Association;) GISBORNE, June. 13. “It is a little over a year since we paid tribute to Captain Harding Leaf, who laid down his life for his country fighting with the Maori Battalion. There have been a great many other losses of sterling officers and men in that battalion and now we mourn a young officer whose deeds have won imperishable renown for his memory and for his race, indeed for the Dominion and the Empire,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) before a large gathering today. He was paying tribute to the memory of Lieutenant Ngarimu, winner of the sixth New Zealand Victoria Cross given in this war and the first Maori V.C. Mr Fraser made a special journey, accompanied by Mr Tirikatene, to take part in a public ceremony cn Lieutenant Ngarimu’s home marae, the occasion being marked by a muster of Home Guard units numbering 800 men. Mr Fraser read the citation of Lieutenant Ngarimu’s award and declared that without embellishment it would inspire generations of New Zealanders and write a new page in the great fighting history of the Maori race. Replying to Sir Apirana Ngata, he added that the country would welcome representations that the Maori battalion overseas be kept up to strength for the duration of the war.