MRS PAHAU RATONI—‘ANA HATO’

Te Ao Hou, Summer 1954, Page 3

MRS PAHAU RATONI—‘ANA HATO’ The well-known Maori singer, Miss Ana Hato, died in the Rotorua Hospital in December, after a long illness. She was 47. Miss Hato, who in private life was Mrs Pahau Ratoni, became a prominent singer in duets with a cousin, Mr Dean Waretini, a tenor, with whom she made recordings in English and Maori. Some years ago they sang in Australia, and their records took Maori songs round the world. Mr Waretini said he believed she had the finest Maori voice that has been heard any-where. She really came into the limelight, he said, when she sang at the reception for the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) in 1927. In Rotorua, Miss Hato was also known as the Maori who taught Gracie Fields to sing ‘Now is the Hour’. Her husband died while a prisoner of war in World War II.