Perry clan farewells patriarch

Tinui patriarch Jock Perry was praised at a memorial service in Masterton yesterday as a hardworking farmer, soldier and staunch family and community man.
Mr Perry, whose farm in Tinui Valley Road had the first topdressing airstrip used by many farmers in the area, was a veteran of World War II, had an abiding interest in the Tinui community and was founding member of the East Coast rugby team.
Though pakeha, Mr Perry was described as a "kaumatua" who had done more than many for Tumapuhia-a-rangi, the hapu into which he married, and its marae at Homewood.
Mr Perry, whose public memorial service will be held in the Tinui War Memorial Hall at 11am on Friday, died suddenly and peacefully at home on Sunday.
He had eight children including Edwin Perry, Masterton District Councillor and former New Zealand First MP, and Owen Perry, a former Masterton District Councillor, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Speaking at their father's home before the service yesterday, Edwin and Owen Perry described him as a "bit of a legend", who had worked from dawn to dark taming the scrub-covered property he was settled on after World War II.
Mr Perry's grandfather, John Alfred Perry, of Castlepoint, had cut a track through the bush and brought the first sheep six rams into Tinui and through to nearby Annedale.
Mr Perry served in the Solomon Islands during World War II and, though he was uninjured, contracted malaria which was to plague him for some time afterwards.
He refused to take the war pension, saying there were others who needed it more than him.
The day before going to war, Mr Perry finished a boundary fence on the same property, which he had farmed as manager, on which he was later to draw the marble in a settlement ballot.
By the time he retired to Masterton in 1977, Mr Perry had turned six scrub-covered paddocks with 800 ewes and 40 cows into a well-managed farm with 1800 ewes and 140 cows.
The farm sported the first airstrip in the region built by Fred Maunsell for the use of all farmers in the district, many of whom were also returned servicemen.
"They all helped each other."
Edwin said his father worked hard and passed that on to his sons, who "were all shearing sheep and cutting scrub by hand, with slashers".
"He never used (now banned defoliant chemical) DDT super, because he said it killed the birds and the eels."
Edwin said Mr Perry was a good supporter of marae issues who "always concerned himself about Maori people" and wanted to make sure they understood the long-term effects of selling their land.
"He married our mother when it wasn't popular to marry a Maori."
Edwin said his father had been very interested in politics, being a supporter of Prime Minister Keith Holyoake who had visited him at home when he was the MP for Pahiatua electorate, which at that stage included Tinui.
"Salt of the earth, straight-talking, honest and self-reliant."
"So Dad liked him, a farmer and a people's person."
Edwin said his father had supported New Zealand First from early on, helping both former NZ First candidate George Groombridge and later himself as a NZ First MP.
Current NZ First MP Ron Mark, of Carterton, was at the memorial service and speaking afterwards he said Mr Perry had been "one of the stalwarts" of New Zealand First in Wairarapa and was "salt of the earth, straight-talking, honest and self-reliant."