Rangitihi memorial meeting house, Taheke Marae, Ōkere Falls.
On 31 March 1951 Mr T.L. Macdonald, the Minister of Defence, and Miss Hine Bennett, daughter of the late Bishop Bennett, opened the new Rangitihi meeting house at Taheke Marae, near Ōkere Falls. This had been built as a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Ngāti Hinerangi who had died in the two world wars. It incorporated carvings by Kaka Niao, assisted by Tiakiawa Tahuriorangi and George Emery. There were also two memorial stained glass windows (not pictured here).
Sources: ‘War Memorial: New Meeting House Is Opened at Taheke’, Rotorua Post, 31/3/1951; ‘Memorial to Māori Sacrifices: Meeting House at Okere’, NZ Herald, 2/4/1951; D.M. Stafford, The New Century in Rotorua, Rotorua, 1988, p. 296.
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