Panapa Wiremu Netana 1960 1970

edmondsallan - hello -" Bishop Panapa " was a leading member of the Maori section of the National Council of Churches of New Zealand, sometimes chairing important conferences. This helped give him a national profile and a leadership role greater than that in the Anglican church. Panapa considered the Maori section one of the most important bodies concerned with Maori well-being, and he was designated as a spokesperson for Maori Christian churches.
Outside the church, Panapa actively supported and attended conferences of the Maori Women’s Welfare League. He saw its emergence as one of the important developments in Maori leadership. He supported the establishment of the New Zealand Maori Council of Tribal Executives (later the New Zealand Maori Council). Panapa believed that education constituted the greatest challenge to Maori. He took a personal interest in the group of Maori students who began university study overseas, and was involved in the establishment of the Maori Education Foundation in 1961. Panapa supported the call by Maori church leaders for new liquor legislation. He did not favour the restoration of discriminatory restrictions on Maori, but argued that Maori tribal executives need to exercise firm leadership. While preaching abstinence, he argued that Maori could remedy their own alcohol problems. In 1960 he opposed the exclusion of Maori from the All Black team to tour South Africa. He also headed a petition of prominent religious, academic, political, trade union, sporting and womens’ leaders to Parliament seeking the adoption, under the Treaty of Waitangi, of a policy of absolute equality between Pakeha and Maori. Well well well - and it is still being debated in Parliament today -- 2010 What have they been doing all those years and getting paid handsomely .
Panapa met Queen Elizabeth II at her welcome in Rotorua in January 1954, where, before 10,000 people and 1,000 performers, he laid a korowai (cloak) on her shoulders. Later, he spoke on behalf of Maori people at the welcome for her at Waitangi. That year he was made a CBE. He met the Queen again at the Waitangi Day ceremony in 1963. Panapa was honoured in 1966 by Maori when he appeared on the front cover of the Maori magazine Te Ao Hou , on the 45th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.
Panapa retired as bishop of Aotearoa, due to ill health, in 1968. He had served well past the church’s normal retirement age, as there were no retirement endowments for Maori bishops (this was to change only in the term of the third bishop, Manuhuia Bennett). Wiremu Panapa died in Palmerston North on 10 June 1970, survived by four sons and three daughters. Agnes Panapa had died in 1950. In fulfilment of a promise to his mentor, colleague and friend, Mutu Kapa, he was buried alongside him at St James’s Church cemetery, near Te Puea Memorial Marae, Mangere. And thus the thread of this person's life came to it's end . No other thread of life within our known
world will ever be able to copy it . I think we should all do well to remember that. What mother nature provides , she can also take away . Till we meet again - Regards -edmondsallan