Chapter 21.5

Pani Albert Himona

1938 to 2015, husband, father, papa, and community leader

We start our writings of Pani Himona’s by including his autobiography which summarises some of his achievements.

"I write these few pages to demonstrate my allegiance to Ngati Kahungunu and the Te Ore Ore Marae."                      

Pani Albert Himona

My Upbringings

I was born in 1938 at Te Ore Ore, the youngest child of James Rupuha Elers and Whanaupani Himona. My mother died during childbirth leaving eight young children ranging in ages from a newborn infant to an eleven-year-old son. We were all whangaied by our mother’s brother Dick & Lil Himona

Having all these mouths to feed, we never went hungry. The family had a herd of about 30 milking cows and Dad worked at Black Rock Station as a general farm hand to supplement the family income. Nanny Albie was the gardener, growing heaps of vegetables. The kids from the village would hang their sugar bags on the fence on their way to school and Nanny Albie filled them up with garden produce to be collected on their way back home.

Community Affairs

Dick worked to improve the welfare of Maori in the Te Ore Ore community, and throughout the Wairarapa. In 1930 he became a member of the Te Ore Ore School Committee and served for 21 years. In 1936 he was appointed an honorary child welfare officer to assist in matters concerning the Maori people. The work covered housing, education, social life and counseling. He also appeared in the Magistrate’s Court as an attending officer, providing assistance on adoptions and succession orders. His knowledge of whakapapa was particularly useful in establishing the identity of Maori trust beneficiaries.

As chairman of the Te Ore Ore Tribal Committee, Dick was responsible for several successful fund-raising campaigns. When Nga Tau e Waru was burned to the ground in November 1939, he instigated various activities to finance the building of a new meeting house. He also acted as guarantor for the money to pay for the carvings. The Marae was given a grant to build the meeting house conditional upon the building be named “The Te Ore Ore Centennial Meeting House” and a suitable plaque was erected for the opening. Within a matter of months, the plaque mysteriously disappeared and was replaced by a new one; “Nga Tau e Waru 1881.”

The initial stage of the new house was completed in 1940, and in the early 1960s Dick organised the construction of a second stage. During the Second World War he led the Te Ore Ore Tribal Committee in raising funds for the troops overseas and for prisoners of war. The committee provided food parcels and knitted goods, and after the war he arranged the welcome home for the returning troops.

As a welfare officer Dick witnessed the appalling living conditions of some Maori families and began a 20-year crusade for improved housing for his community. He was responsible for remits being forwarded through the tribal committee to the Wairarapa Tribal Executive Committee and to the Department of Māori Affairs, which led to the department giving financial assistance for eight new houses in Te Ore Ore. Having observed that state houses being built in Wairarapa were not made available to Māori, he brought the matter to the attention of government departments and from 1961 houses were allocated to Māori.

Dick was chairman of the Wairarapa Tribal Executive Committee for 31 years, also a member of the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Board. In 1959 he was appointed a delegate to the Ikaroa District Council and in 1963 he became a foundation member of the New Zealand Māori Council, serving until 1964. In 1962, with the mayor of Masterton, he launched the Wairarapa appeal for funds for the Maori Education Foundation, of which he was a member.

In 1962 Dick was made a justice of the peace. He was appointed to the Monsignor Moore Education Trust board in 1970 as the representative of the Māori people. In 1974 he appealed to the public for funds to buy a Lindauer painting of Retimana Te Korou. The painting was purchased at auction and is part of the collection of the Wairarapa Arts and Cultural Centre.

Dick was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 1976 for services to the community. 

These writings came from the pen of the late Keith Cairns, a local historian and writer.

As my father served the people during his lifetime it should be no surprise that I followed in his footsteps but to a lesser degree but retaining his Kahungunutanga and Rangitāne connections.

Education

I attended Te Ore Ore School then progressed to Hato Paora College, eight miles out of Feilding attaining 

Endorsed School Certificate in 1956. In 1960 I attended tertiary courses at Wairarapa College in English, Accounting Stage 1, Accounting Stage 2 and Commercial Law 1.

Employment

On leaving College, I worked as a farm labourer for three months until my time arrived to attend Compulsory Military Training at Waiouru Military Camp on 12th May 1957. After 10 weeks CMT, I joined the staff of Thos Borthwick & Sons (A’Asia) Ltd at Waingawa Freezing Works as the Office Junior, resigning 20 years later as the Office Manager.

Employment record thereafter

• Cannings Whakatane Ltd Office Manager, Furniture Sales 1977/1978

• Whakatane District Council Maori Land & Rates Officer 1978/1980

• Self Employed Developing Boysenberry & Kiwifruit orchard 1980/1984

• Cannings Whakatane Ltd Management Accountant 1983/1984

• Inland Revenue Department Payroll Inspector 1985/1986

• Masterton Borough Council Asst. Borough Treasurer 1986/1995

• Ngāti Kahungunu Taiwhenua 1995/2000.

Appointments

Wairarapa Justice of the Peace 

Marriage Celebrant

Community involvement

Pani and his siblings were brought up by Nanny and Papa, known as Uncle Dick and Aunty Lil. 

Pani had this photograph on the wall by his desk where he did so much community work.

We have one photo of Pani as a boy going on to a fancy-dress party and one as a young man at Hato Paora College, Feilding. 

At college Pani played rugby for the first fifteen and as an adult was selected for the New Zealand Marist team playing as lock.

In 1959 he married June Patricia Robinson from South Featherston, daughter of James Benjamen and Muriel Magdalene Robinson.

Pani and June had five children, Bernard (Buttons), Peter (Peter Pan), John (Nigel), Pani (Boy boy), and Riria (Missy). 

Pani and June built a house just down from the marae and across the road from Nanny and Papa’s home. In the 70s we moved to Whakatane, first living in Hinemoa Street, then at Poroporo just out of Whakatane where Pani developed a boysenberry and then a kiwifruit orchard. 

The whanau have many fond memories of our times at Bideford Road and Poroporo. Once the family and Nanny went pāua diving at Glenburn. While Pani and his older sons were putting on their wet suits a huge octopus grabbed hold of and climbed up Boy Boy’s legs. Pani put a butcher knife into the octopus who ran off with the knife. Nanny said that’s it we are off home, so we packed up and went home minus the butcher knife.

At Poroporo many whānau came to visit us particularly in summer when Ohiwa harbour mussels were abundant and fat. One time Pani’s nephew Robin arrived, and we duly went en-masse to gather mussels. When home Robin shelled the whole lot and left them in a bucket while he went inside for plastic bags. He was gone for only a few minutes but long enough for our pet labrador Suzzie to eat most of those mussels straight from the bucket. 

When Papa passed away Pani and June moved back to Masterton and Pani supported and carried on from where Papa left off.

In addition to some of the tasks listed in Pani’s writings above, he also arranged the purchase and administration of what are known as the Kaumatua flats. These flats are near the Masterton hospital, owned by the Te Ore Ore marae committee, and are now unencumbered.

One of the many improvements Pani instigated was the 1991 building of a new separate ablution block at the Marae. Boy Boy, then a Design Engineer, designed and co-coordinated the building of the ablution block. More than thirty years later the ablution block is in good order.

Good times

Pani was also very funny. Here he and his brother – Uncle Jock – found it very humorous that they could fit in this Vintage car.  I can also remember one-time Pani and the crew picked up someone’s mini and carried it away somewhere else.

Recently we came across this notice of adoptions pertaining to Dad and Uncle Jock, it records Dad’s first names as George Albert Elers and now known as Pani Himona.

Pani pased away on 25 January 2015. He is burried at Ahitainga Urupa, Te Ore Ore road, Masterton.

E aroha tonu ana ia ki a tatou katoa - He is still caring for us all