as headquarters. All the meals were prepared and eaten at Rewarewa also the food was ordered from Whakatane. The meat was obtained from the local farmers of Ruatoki. Wood was collected from the river bed, on tractors.

Thomas Bush

I write about the debates at the Tuhoe Festival held at Ruatoki. These began on Friday night, with Tawera and Mataatua being first. The topic was ‘It is right now that the children of Tuhoe should handle the affairs of Tuhoe’. Tawera won. After Tawera came Ruatoki and Kawerau. This was very delightful to me. Ruatoki won. Tawera and Ruatoki were on the negative. On Saturday Turangi and Kawerau debated and Turangi won. Owing to lack of time the debates did not finish so no one won this trophy.

Katie Riini