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At the end of the road at Manukau Point, not far past Owenga and
about 10 km from Waitangi is a life-size statue of Tommy Solomon. A
larger-than life character, Tommy was a prominent Chatham Island figure
and successful farmer of the Manukau Point area.
Tommy, whose real name was Tame Horomona Rehe is believed by most to have been the last true (full-blooded) Moriori.
Tommy was born at Waikaripi in the Chatham Islands and raised on the
Moriori Reserve at Manukau. His mother died in 1903. Tommy was married
in 1903 to Ada Fowler of the Kai Tahu iwi and began learning the trade
of sheep farmer first on leased land and then on the family holding
which gradually increased in size. When his father and his wife died in
1915 Tommy was running 7000 sheep and a herd of cattle on the family
farm. Tommy remarried in 1916 to Whakarawa, the niece of his first wife
and subsequently had five children.
During the 1920s Tommy became known as one of the most successful
farmers in the Chatham Islands. He took an active part in the social
and political life of the Chatham Islands and was widely respected for
his generosity and his conciliatory nature; it was as the "last
full-blooded Moriori" however that he was best known.
Tame Horomona Rehe died of pneumonia and heart failure in 1933.
Whati Tuuta, the son of his friend George Tuuta, built his coffin for
the 22 stone figure. The statue at Manakau was made to commemorate his
life in 1986.
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