The new classroom block at Tikitiki School was opened on 26 March 1940. The ceremony was attended by more than of 500 people including a busload of Ngāti Porou recruits to C Company Māori Battalion who were on their way to Gisborne. Their leader, Lieutenant Parekura Tureia, an old boy of the school, declared the building open and unveiled a tablet bearing its name, Pae-o-te-Riri (‘The battle front”).
It is unclear whether or not the building was actually consecrated as a war memorial, but the name was clearly chosen to acknowledge the deeds of local soldiers.
See: ‘New Native School: Open-air Building: Tikitiki Opening’, Gisborne Herald, 29/3/1940; Monty Soutar, Nga Tama Toa: The Price of Citizenship, Auckland, 2008, pp. 70, 367.
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