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A Mother to the Orphans.

In social, political, and economic organisation among her people Te Puea has exhibited the spirit of the pioneer and the progressivist. She established a kind of model village at Ngaruawahia—the historic watersmeet where the Waipa River joins the great Waikato—a beautiful and storied spot, the pre-war headquarters of the Maori Kingdom. Here, while adopting modern ideas in the direction of health and social uplift, she has revived some of the beauty of the old-time Maori life.

Here, too, she has shown herself a mother to her people, in excelsis, for the marae of Mahina-a-rangi is a place where scores of motherless have been cherished. The great-hearted Te Puea has now fifty orphans there whom she feeds and clothes. Often she does not know where the money is coming from, and she has undertaken all manner of work for her beloved kahuipani, her flock of orphans.