Mr Hana Tamaka, O.B.E.

Te Ao Hou, December 1966, Page 2

Mr Hana Tamaka, O.B.E. South Taranaki's leading Maori spokesman, Mr Hana Taua Tamaka, O.B.E., died at Hawera on 8 August after a brief illness. He was 63. Chief of the Ngati-Ruanui sub-tribe, Mr Tamaka, like his father before him, the late Mr Awarua Tamaka, was a member of the Taranaki Maori Trust Board, and had been chairman for the last 10 years. Born in the Taiporohenui area, he spent his whole life in the district, farming there and at Ohangai. He was a director of the Ohangai Dairy Company for 15 years, a member of the Rangiatea Methodist Maori Trust, the Taranaki Museum Board, the Taranaki Patriotic Council and the Hawera Rotary Club, Mr Tamaka was a man of wide and varied interests, and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1958, for his service to the Maori people. After a service at the Taiporohenui Pa, attended by hundreds of Maoris from all over New Zealand, Mr Tamaka was buried at the tribal cemetery. Mr Tamaka leaves his wife, Mrs Whakamamairoa Tamaka, three daughters and a son, Reta (Mrs Maui, Hawera), Bella (Mrs Tutauha, Wellington), Manu (Invercargill), and Tawa (Mrs Teaotonga, Hawera). Five children predeceased him.