Retired High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen was accorded a full-school haka as he was carried from the Lindisfarne College Chapel yesterday at the end of a funeral celebrating a judge who didn't like judging.
He didn't like judging people, said Justice Joe Williams, another judge of the High Court and former Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court. Justice Williams also observed Justice Gallen didn't like prisons, yet visited them all so he would know the conditions criminals were off to, and where he would then go to see how they were getting on.
Justice Williams was delivering one of the tributes at a two-hour service before about 800 people. Sir Rodney's casket was adorned with a judge's wig and korowai, representing the two cultures that dominated his life.
His knowledge of Maori was to serve him well as he guided negotiations over ownership of the bed of Lake Waikaremoana enabling it to be leased back to the Government in 1971, for power generation and with funds going to a new trust board to protect the owners' interests.
Sir Rodney lived at Havelock North and died on Saturday, aged 78. He had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour.