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1894–1989Racehorse owner and breeder
Leonard Seton Otway was born on 6 February 1894 in Mount Eden, Auckland, the eldest of three children of Loftus Hastings Otway, a surveyor, and his wife, Mary Russell Puckey. Known as Seton, he grew up on his parents' farm at Elstow, where horses were an integral part of life. He was educated...
Story: Otway, Leonard Seton
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1920–1990Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu; doctor, rugby player, local politician, community leader
Manahi Nītama Paewai, sometimes known as ‘Doc’ Paewai, was born on 8 June 1920 at Mākirikiri, south of Dannevirke. His father, Nireaha (Niki) Paewai of Ngāti Te Rangiwhakāewa hapū of Rangitāne, was a farmer. His mother, Apikara Walker, was of Ngāti Rākaipaaka hapū of Ngāti Kahungunu. He was...
Story: Paewai, Manahi Nītama
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1899–1988Artist
Evelyn Margaret Polson was born in Christchurch on 23 April 1899. She was the seventh and youngest child of Mary Elizabeth Renshaw and her husband, John Sutherland Polson. Her father was accountant at, and later manager of, Suckling Brothers boot and leather factory. Both her parents were over...
Story: Page, Evelyn Margaret
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1905–1983University professor of music, pianist, critic
Frederick Joseph Page profoundly influenced New Zealand musical life through his teaching, writing, broadcasts and concert performances. He was born in Lyttelton on 4 December 1905, the son of David Joseph Page, a coal and produce merchant, and his wife, Olga Marguerite Smith, who was born in...
Story: Page, Frederick Joseph
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1897–1957Pacifist, industrial chemist
Robert Owen Page was born in Christchurch on 23 November 1897, the son of Sarah Saunders and her husband, Samuel Page. His father was a demonstrator in chemistry at Canterbury College and his mother was a well-known feminist and social reformer. Robert, known as Robin to his friends, was...
Story: Page, Robert Owen
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1905–1992Teacher, political activist
Ruth Page came to prominence in 1955 when she led the controversial and much publicised Nelson women’s railway protest. Unusually small of stature, and always correct and ladylike, she stepped into the public gaze for a brief period, but when the railway was finally torn up a few months later...
Story: Page, Ruth Allan
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1863–1950Teacher, feminist, prohibitionist, socialist, social reformer
Sarah Saunders, born on 26 August 1863 at Waimea South, New Zealand, was the sixth of 10 children of Rhoda Flower and her husband, the radical politician, writer, temperance advocate and champion of women's suffrage Alfred Saunders. She was thus reared in a hard-working but successful and quite...
Story: Page, Sarah
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1858–1932Homemaker, community worker
Nielsine Nielsen was born in Jelling, Vejle, Denmark, on 21 July 1858, the third of eight children of Mette Marie Simans and her husband, Lauritz Nielsen, a dairy farmer. Life was busy and hard, and to augment the family income her father repaired boots. During the winter months Nielsine helped...
Story: Paget, Nielsine
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1869/1870?–1948Ngāti Porou; Anglican minister
Hākaraia Pāhewa was born probably in 1869 or 1870 at Tokomaru Bay, the son of Matiaha Pāhewa and his wife, Hera Marokau, who were both of Te Whānau-a-Rua, a hapū of Ngāti Porou. His father served from 1863 to 1906 as Anglican priest of Tokomaru Bay, and Hākaraia Pāhewa lived the whole of his...
Story: Pāhewa, Hākaraia
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1894–1943Te Uri-o-Hau and Ngāti Whatua; Methodist minister, Rātana leader, politician
Paraire Karaka Paikea was the great-grandson of Paikea Te Hekeua, a prominent chief of Te Uri-o-Hau and Ngāti Whatua. His father was Karaka Eramiha Paikea, and his mother was Tuhi Harirū Maihi, daughter of Wereti and Hōpera Maihi, also of Ngāti Whatua. Paraire was born at Ōtamatea, Kaipara,...
Story: Paikea, Paraire Karaka
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1920–1963Te Uri-o-Hau and Ngāti Whātua leader, Rātana minister, politician
Tāpihana (Dobson) Paraire Paikea, known as Dobbie, but registered at birth as Poata Paikea, was a great-great-grandson of the paramount Te Uri-o-Hau chief Paikea Te Hekeua. As such, he had his roots deep in Tai Tokerau and was related to many of the leading tribes of Northland, including Te...
Story: Paikea, Tāpihana Paraire
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?–1884Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi tohunga, military leader, assessor
Paipai, also known as Kāwana Pitiroi Paipai, was born near the end of the eighteenth century. He had connections with Ngāti Ruaka and other hapū of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi. His father, who died in 1847, was Tawhitiōrangi, the son of Te Raetaranaki (Raikaranaki). His mother's name was...
Story: Paipai, Kāwana Pitiroi
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1896–1986Importer, manufacturing engineer, businessman
Karl Pallo was born at Reinu, Pärnu, Estonia, then part of the Russian empire, on 17 February 1896, the son of Henry Pallo, an engineer, and his wife, Anna Martinson. His father acquired interests in a generator factory in Riga, Latvia, and a horse-drawn carriage firm, as well as an estate with...
Story: Pallo, Karl
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1886–1977Public servant, union official, equal pay campaigner
Alice May Palmer was born on 6 August 1886 at Gordon, near Gore, New Zealand, the eldest of three children of Alice Shepard and her husband, Walter Henry Palmer, a clerk of court. In 1900 May boarded in Invercargill and began attending Southland Girls' High School with an education board...
Story: Palmer, Alice May
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1898–1993Clerical worker, political activist, welfare worker
Doris Adelaide Canham was born in Auckland on 21 August 1898, the eldest of five children of Lillian Henrietta Cornish and her husband, Ernest Edward (Ted) Canham, an English-born carter who worked on the Auckland waterfront. The children regularly attended the Pitt Street Methodist Sunday...
Story: Palmer, Doris Adelaide
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1832–1897Music and singing teacher, performer, composer, entertainment promoter
Born in Bramford, Suffolk, England, on 3 November 1832, Elizabeth Mary Naylor came from a family of landed gentry with close connections to the Anglican church. Her father, George Naylor, was successively vicar of Bramford-cum-Burstall and Rougham in Suffolk; her paternal grandfather was a...
Story: Palmer, Elizabeth Mary
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1826–1910Banker, runholder
Joseph Palmer, a leading Canterbury banker, was born probably on 6 April 1826 at either London or Bedfordshire, England. He may have been the son of Elizabeth Palmer and her husband, John, a nonconformist landowner from Goldington, Bedfordshire. Nothing is known of Joseph's early life and...
Story: Palmer, Joseph
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?–1856Te Rarawa leader, evangelist, assessor
Pana-kareao was an influential leader of Te Pātū hapū of Te Rarawa. At the time of his birth his father, Te Kaka, was involved in intertribal wars. Driven from Ōruru, near Mangonui, Te Kaka fled towards North Cape. While making his way through heavy bush, he became entangled in supple-jack...
Story: Pana-kareao, Nōpera
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1898–1970Ngāti Ruanui and Te Rarawa; Anglican bishop
Bishop Wiremu Nētana Pānapa, known affectionately as Barney, was the second bishop of Aotearoa. He was born in Ahikiwi, north of Dargaville, on 7 June 1898. Pānapa’s grandfather, Pānapa Hōhāpata, of Ngāti Ruanui, was captured during one of Ngāti Whātua’s battles in Taranaki in the late 1820s...
Story: Pānapa, Wiremu Nētana
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?–1930Ngāti Whātua leader, Anglican lay reader, land negotiator
Ōtene Pāora was born, probably in the 1860s or early 1870s, at Rēweti, south of Helensville, the third son of Pāora Kāwharu and his wife, Rāhera Uruamo of Te Taoū, Ngā Oho and Te Uringutu hapū of Ngāti Whātua. He was baptised in January 1873. Ōtene married Ngāhiraka of Waimamaku with whom he...
Story: Pāora, Ōtene