Na Ihowa i Homai, Na Ihowa i Tango;
Kia Whakapaingia Te Ingoa o Ihowa

National Publicity Studios
Eruera Tihema Tirikatene

At almost nine o'clock on the night of Wednesday, 11 January 1967, our revered and distinguished leader the Hon. Sir Eruera Tirikatene shut off his power saw for the last time, sat down on the log he had just felled and with a smile of satisfaction, as of someone reminiscing on a job well done, closed his eyes for the last time. It had been a normal sort of day, so characteristic of the man. He had risen at 4.00 a.m. with a complete plan of action in mind and had solidly worked through a 16-hour day until it had been successfully completed.

Only a few days previously, on 5 January, Sir Eruera had turned 72 years of age, yet he died having never experienced old age. Sir Eruera's physical strength was almost superhuman. The strength of his faith in God was unsurpassed by that of any other mortal and his faith in his people inspired him to champion their rights in Parliament.

During his 34 years as a representative of his Maori people he fought relentlessly to remove the blatant discrimination that had existed before he was elected in 1932. Then, a Maori was paid half of the wage paid to a

pakeha for the same job. When Sir Eruera returned from fighting in the First World War in 1919 he discovered to his disgust that no Maori Returned Serviceman received rehabilitation assistance from the Government as did the pakeha, though they had fought side by side … and so the list of anomalies went on. Thus this comparatively wealthy young farmer, miller, and fishing-fleet and ferry-service proprietor had accepted the plea of Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana and of his people to represent them in Parliament.

As a member of the newly elected Labour Government he saw that all of this sort of discrimination was removed, and he fought for the rights of his Maori poeple for equal opportunity in the rights and responsibilities of New Zealand citizenship, as promised in the Third Article of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Furthermore, Sir Eruera, truly a dynamic leader with vision and purpose, fought for the social and economic advancement of his Maori people, translating this aim into various pieces of legislation during the Labour Party's regime. It is no wonder that Sir Turi Carroll said Sir Eruera had been the greatest of all Maori leaders. Nor was it any wonder that over the three days of his tangi some 5,000 mourners, both Maori and pakeha, travelled to his home marae at Tehiwi Marama Kaiapoi to shed tears and pay their eloquent tributes to this mighty yet ever so humble leader of leaders, affectionately known as ‘Tiri’.

Aotearoa mourned.

Maoridom shed tears of lamentation, for their ‘Tiri’ had been a man of monumental stature who had been the protective sentinel guarding the rights of his people.

Half Maori, half European, Sir Eruera knew that until all New Zealanders had equal opportunities of social and economic advancement as citizens in the one society, race relations between them could hardly begin to be harmonious. These then were the ideals which he translated via dynamic action into actual reality.

Sir Eruera was a chapter of history. He was a legend in his lifetime, and an era closed when he died.

Haere e te pononga o nga ariki. Te kahurangi pounamu o te iwi. Te koata te omeka. Te manu korero i runga i nga marae o te motu. Haere ki a Ihu Karaiti to Kaiwhakaora ki Te Kaihanga.