This image of a headstone was taken at Terrace End Cemetery. William Moffatt, OBE, rests here with his wife and son, his grandmother Ereni Te Awe Awe and his cousin Henare Apatari. Moffatt, or Rangi Mawhete, was born in the Palmerston North district c. 1876, the only child of William Moffatt, a Scottish trader, and his wife Emiri Te Awe Awe. William Moffatt senior died in 1880 and his son was brought up at the Awapuni marae in the home of his grandmother Ereni Te Awe Awe.
After completing his education at Te Aute College William Moffatt worked in Palmerston North, eventually becoming a real estate and commission agent and a licensed interpreter of the Māori language. He acted as agent for Māori people from all over the southern part of the North Island pursuing claims in the Māori Land Court. From the 1920s Moffatt became involved in politics and stood twice unsuccessfully for the Western Maori seat in Parliament.
During the 1930s Moffatt assisted in bringing the Labour Party into a formal alliance with the Ratana Church. The result of this was that all four Māori seats in Parliament were won by Labour Party representatives. In 1936, after the election of the first Labour Government, Moffat was appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council, Parliament's upper house. He served on the Legislative Council until March 1950, shortly before its disestablishment. He was one of the first Māori to be made a justice of the peace.
William Moffatt was awarded an OBE for his services to the Māori people in 1959 and died in Palmerston North in 1961.
