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Headstone - Meritini Te Panau

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Description: This image of a headstone was taken at Terrace End Cemetery. The oldest Māori headstone in the cemetery is that of Meritini Te Panau, a member of the Te Awe Awe family, the principal family of Rangitanē people who occupied the Palmerston North district in the mid 19th century. The inscription on the headstone 'i mate i te 10 Mei 1888' translates as 'Died 10 May 1888.' Meritini (Mary Jane) married Kerei (Grey) Te Panau and they lived at the village of Hokowhitu near the end of the present day Fitzroy Street. This village was part of an 890 acre block kept by the Rangitanē people at the time of the sale of the 250,000 acre Upper Manawatū, Te Ahu-a-Turanga block in 1864. The Hokowhitu Block encompassed much of the modern suburb of Hokowhitu, extending from the Manawatū River to what is now College street, and from Fitzroy Street to Jickell Street.

Kerei Te Panau, who was a kaumatua (elder) of the Rangitanē, lived until 1908, when it is thought he was about 103 years old. Kerei Te Panau is also buried in the Terrace End Cemetery, but in another part in an unmarked grave.