Leaders pay tribute as Lady Emily laid to rest

FINAL JOURNEY: Lady Emily Latimer's casket is taken from Te Paatu Marae yesterday. PHOTO/EDWARD ROONEY

Lady Emily Latimer has been laid to rest after a tangi at Pamapuria.

The wife and firm ally of New Zealand Maori Council founder Sir Graham Latimer died on Tuesday, aged 87, and she was buried yesterday.

A frail Sir Graham, 89, accompanied his wife to the urupa.

Lady Emily and Sir Graham's granddaughter Tina Latimer said Chief Justice of New Zealand, Dame Sian Elias - the most senior member of New Zealand's judiciary - was one of the first dignitaries to arrive at Te Paatu Marae on Wednesday.

As a barrister, Dame Sian worked with the Latimers and the Maori Council in 1987 to prevent massive tracts of disputed Maori land being sold off under the State-Owned Enterprises Act.

Court of Appeal president Sir Robin Cooke said at the time the Maori Council's case was "perhaps as important for the future of our country as any that has come before a New Zealand court".

The Latimers mortgaged their dairy farm to help fund the legal challenge.

Yesterday morning at Te Paatu Marae a tribute was read by Sir David Baragwanath, from his post as president of the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Sir David, who mounted the 1987 legal challenge of the Crown with Dame Sian in 1987, said it was an equal privilege to work with Lady Emily as Sir Graham during those tumultuous times.

"[She] made a noble contribution to New Zealand history in her own right," Sir David said.

"Her contribution to the greater good of this country and it's people contributed mightily to today's New Zealand."

Lady Emily, from the Walker whanau of Whakatohea, met her future husband in Auckland in 1945 and they married in 1948. The two were a formidable team in their work with the Tai Tokerau district and New Zealand Maori Council.