Page 12 - 1981 News Clippings

Rare Compliments Made at
Turangawaewae
25th March 1981
Compliments were paid both to His
Worship the Mayor of Ngaruawahia and
to Turangawaewae Marae, that the
Mayor should be accorded the status and
distinction of a kaumatua (an elder) to sit
and speak on the Marae.
Visiting Elders said that it was a
gracious and most unusual circumstance of
which Ngaruawahia and Turangawaewae
might well be proud; it demonstrated the
close link between town and Marae and
many expressed the wish that it would
happen in their territory.
But it was Lady Beattie herself, whose
compliment left the Principal
Ngaruawahia High School in
embarrassing position.
Knowing that an important delegation
of South-East Asian Ambassadors and
Representatives were to be received by Te
Now that Ngaruawahia has a Fun
Parlour, the Principal of the High School is
complaining his pupils are playing truant
from school.
Indeed he says truancy has never been
as bad as it is now.
Complaints have been coming into the
Borough but as the Mayor, Mr F. Barakat
said, the Fun Parlour was a perfectly legal
business, and until someone broke the law
there was nothing the police could do,
though they were keeping close watch on the
parlour.
The manager was doing all he could
keeping the footpath tidy himself, and he
Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu the next
week, she suggested to Mr Murphy that his
Cultural Group were so magnificent that
they should attend the Marae that day as the
young representatives for New Zealand, to
impress those visitors as they had impressed
the Vice-Regal party.
The suggestion had to be considered as
a Vice-Regal command favoured
undoubtedly, it would appear, by the Maori
Queen herself. This left Mr Murphy with
the job of re-organising school timetables,
teacher rosters, arranging rehearsals and
‘catch-up’ lessons for group members.
However, he will surely be aware that
of his School will have been accorded mana
an and that his pupils will add their bit to
international and diplomatic relations, even
though perhaps secretly thinking that he
wished his Cultural Group were not as good
as they were as to deserve her Excellency’s
compliments and command.
Fun Parlour Brings Complaints
had arranged for a man to see that the cycles
were not left lying on the footpath making it
difficult for people trying to enter the shops.
Cr. A. Patterson said they still were
troublesome.
Mr Barakat understood that girls were
setting out from home to school, going into
the public ladies toilets and changing into
jeans.
Then they would spend all the time in
the Fun Parlour until the pupils were going
home from school when they would change
back into their school uniforms.