Frederick Bennett Katene

Tu Tangata, Issue 21, 1 December 1984, Page 20

Frederick Bennett Katene

Poroporoaki

A Maori elder of Te Atiawa and Ngati Toa, ‘Uncle’ Fred Katene passed away in October this year aged 87. His tangi took place at Takapuahia Marae, Titahi Bay.

Uncle Fred was one of the key people behind the formation of Wellington’s Ngati Poneke Maori Association (Inc) in the 1940’s and many Maori people who’ve made the shift to Wellington since that time have shared in his foresight.

In keeping with this, Tu Tangata pays tribute to the man through the words of a secretary of the Ngati Poneke club, Tom Parore. The ocassion is fundraising in 1971 for a new centre subsequently opened in May, 1980 called Pipitea Marae.

“I think it was my experience of being lost and lonely when I came to Wellington in 1911 that has influenced me to do something for the young people who come here to live and work.”

The speaker is Fred Bennett Katene, M.8.E., J.P., the President of Ngati Poneke.

“Uncle Fred”, as Mr Katene is known to all at Ngati Poneke, views the appeal for funds for a new centre as the fulfilment of a dream of a permanent headquarters where Maori culture can be practised and preserved and which will be open to all people who come to the city to live and work.

Still call

A distinguished looking man and always an immaculate dresser, Uncle Fred has really been Ngati Poneke. He is the one mainly responsible for giving tone to the place. For many years practically his whole attention has been directed towards the welfare of Maori youth and helping them adjust to city conditions. During this time, his health has been indifferent a carry over from a German gas attack during the First World War.

In the days (1947-62) when he was a Maori Welfare Officer in Wellington, most of the young Maoris coming to the city made him their first contact for employment and accommodation.

“Friends or relations already in Wellington would tell them to come and see me.

“And I think it was an advantage that they knew they could contact me at the Ngati Poneke Hall any evening and at weekends. I moved into accommodation at the hall to keep an eye on the place and to be available to the young people.’’

Although he retired from the welfare officer’s position in 1962, when he turned 65, many of the young Maoris still called to see him when they arrive in Wellington.

Until recently he also visited the Courts regularly to give guidance and help to young Maoris.

“Uncle Fred” never married. Ngati Poneke has been his first love. And he is proud of the standards of achievement of this great club which is now widely accepted as the leading one of its kind in New Zealand.

“Sir Apirana Ngata and Kingi Tahiwi, they were the ones who insisted on standards of excellence. And this was right from the beginning so we have had these standards to live up to during the years. Mick Jones, who was Private Secretary to the Minister of Maori Affairs, was another, and more recently people like Carl Karepa and Don Manunui have kept the standards up.”

Though he is obviously proud of the impressive record of successes achieved by Ngati Poneke in Maori cultural competitions throughout New Zealand, it is the work being done for young people in the ordinary club activities and service to the community that he regards as the more important.

“I have had many thrills watching our young people and seeing them respond to the teaching of great leaders past and present. The singing of our people is beautiful and their harmony there is nothing better.

“It’s been a great thrill to me also to have our choir reformed. I've been interested in choir music all my life. It’s sacred and it gives us a better standing and brings us closer to things that are worthwhile.”

Uncle Fred was born in Motueka in 1897, the third youngest of a family of 12.

“My mother died when I was about three and so, along with my younger brother and sister, we had to be placed in an orphanage. This was the Anglican orphanage at Motueka. There were about 60 there altogether, both boys and girls and mostly european.”

He stayed at the orphanage until he was 14 and arrangements were then made to send him to Pukerua Bay to stay with his aunt, who had a farm there.

Bewildered

“I came across from Motueka on the old s.s Koe and I was told I would be met by my aunt when the ship berthed at Queen’s Wharf. But no one was there to meet me. (I found out later there had been a misunderstanding about the date of my arrival.) I waited there all day until it began to get dark and then I made my way into the city.” This boy of 14 from an orphanage, and with his few belongings in a candlebox, was bewildered by the big buildings and traffic and at a loss what to do.

“I saw some Maoris so I followed them. I was frightened to talk to them and I couldn’t understand what they were saying to each other. They went up Molesworth Street to the Wellington Hotel and went into the diningroom for a meal. I went in too and had a meal. I can’t remember whether I paid for it.”

After the meal he stayed around the hotel for a while wondering what to do. “The others went off so I went across the road to the Parliament grounds and slept there.” He did this for about three nights but one night it rained so he went across and slept in the hotel. During the daytime he spent his time in the billiard room of the hotel.

The proprietor began to take an interest and to ask whether anyone knew anything of this “strange Maori boy who was so shy and afraid”. This got to the notice of Mr Bailey, a lawyer who had been aware that the boy was coming over from Motueka.

“He saw me and after questioning me he put me on the train at Thorndon Station. He also drew a plan showing me where Pukerua Bay was and he told me to make sure and get off there.”

Fred had a happy time at his aunt’s for a time they camped at the beach at Pukerua Bay but he had trouble getting used to the food they were eating.

“I wasn't used to the Maori kai like dried shark and kanga pirau (fermented corn) and dried pauas and I didn’t like them. Different today. But I loved the Maori bread, which was cooked in camp ovens on an open fire.”

But he felt he needed further schooling beyond what he had received at the orphanage. “I pleaded with my aunt to send me back to school. So I was sent to

Otaki Maori College, where I spent about a year.” Put up age After college he went to work in the Railways Department in Wellington. “I was taught telegraphy by Mr Sutherland, who was later to found the SelfHelp Stores he took an interest in me and helped me a lot.” He was only 17 at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. He put up his age and volunteered for active service, along with four of his brothers, and was sent overseas with the second Maori contingent to Egypt and France. He was injured in a German gas attack at Messines in France and spent a period recuperating in a military hospital at Walton-on-Thames in Britain. Back home after nearly four years military service, he went back to the Railways and worked as a relieving stationmaster at Hunterville, Taringamotu and Waimarino and other places before resigning about 1923. “My doctor told me to get a job that involved more outdoors work. I helped

my father for a while and then I got a job selling sections for Mr Dunbar Sloane at Titahi Bay.” After this he worked for J.W. Perkins and Co., land agents, before going into business as a land agent on his own account. Challenge “I gave this up at the beginning of the Second World War and volunteered for active service.” He was turned down on medical grounds and at this stage joined the Maori Affairs Department in the records section. He remained there until appointed as a welfare officer in 1947. Asked why he had developed such an interest in helping young people, “Uncle Fred” said: “I never forgot my experience of being lost in the city and I wouldn’t want anyone, Maori or pakeha, to have that experience it was a very lonely experience. I thought we could have an organisation to look after Maoris, or anybody for that matter, coming into the city.

“It was in the 1929 period and the depression. My brother Hari had formed a group and other people like Lady Pomare and Mrs Wiki Bennett were doing welfare work for the Maori people. I became associated with them in the early groups which later developed into the Ngati Poneke groups we know today. “I was motivated by my own experience to develop something that was worthwhile for the Maori people so that they need not be like me but so they could have the opportunity to learn Maori and the beautiful things of the culture of our people. “The main challenge confronting us is our building project. This is the most substantial measure of giving help to our people in the retention of our culture. I am happy to see so many of our young people responding and helping to make this a reality. “And with the work they are doing to learn the best of both cultures, I am sure they will make a worthy contribution to New Zealand’s progress.”