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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Muruika dawn service uncertain

By Kereama Wright
Rotorua Daily Post·
24 Apr, 2015 04:56 AM3 mins to read

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250414bf7 Anzac Day dawn service at Muruika urupa (cemetery) at Ohinemutu 25 April 2014 Rotorua Daily Post Photograph by Ben Fraser

250414bf7 Anzac Day dawn service at Muruika urupa (cemetery) at Ohinemutu 25 April 2014 Rotorua Daily Post Photograph by Ben Fraser

The Te Arawa Returned Services League is concerned about the future of the Muruika dawn service as support dwindles.

In five day's time dawn services will be held across the country to remember and acknowledge ANZACS who fought and died for King, for God and for country.

But the future of Rotorua's famous Muruika dawn service is now uncertain, says Te Arawa Returned Services League former president Te Kei Merito. "If the league members, through attrition of age and other things, start to dwindle, than obviously there will be very few left to carry the job."

The league has spent the last four months organising this Saturday's ANZAC Dawn Service dedicated to "WW100", the 100 year commemoration of World War One. But as membership slowly drops, few remain to carry the voluntary duties of organising the annual event.

"My greatest concern is for the league to become defunct and the dawn service handed back to the RSA, whose future is not much brighter than that of Te Arawa RSL", Merito said.

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The Rotorua RSA celebrate's 100 years next year. Cathy Donohughe, administrator for over 6 years admits, "It has been a huge struggle to keep the RSA going."

"We need to get our young Maori serviceman involved to carry it on. We have to do it."

She says the slow dive began in 2010. "A lot of it is due to perceptions of the sort of people that are at the RSA. So we have been trying to push our membership to include the community." The annual Rotorua ANZAC Dawn Service held at Muruika urupa,
Ohinemutu, attracts thousands every year. It was established by veterans of the 28 Maori Battalion's B-Company in 1939, during WW2.

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To accommodate growing numbers and limited space at Muruika, Merito says the league has this year hired a big screen that will be placed further back.

"Many are not able to see what is going on [at the front] as they are too far back. I came up with a thought that perhaps we should look at putting up a big screen."

That comes at a cost of up to $7000, meaning this year's budget was estimated to be over $10,000, of which the league of 38 members, raised themselves.

"A lot of the preparation that we did was blind. In other words, it was preparation that we did, even though we hadn't got what we applied for."

Te Kei Merito says, although the current strength of the league is enough to keep things going, future support cannot be avoided.

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