Memorial seat installed for two who died in 1936 Whanganui River drowning

Descendants of Takiau Kiriona Williams and Kaporangi Raupa Wharemate gather by their memorial seat on the Whanganui riverside. Photos / Supplied

Two men who drowned in the Whanganui River in 1936 have been remembered with a service and the unveiling of a memorial seat on the riverside.

Organiser David Graham said about 150 people from all over New Zealand attended, and were hosted at Whangaehu Marae.

The seat is on the Whanganui River shared pathway to North Mole, where Putiki and Corliss Island can be seen - places important to the men.

They were Takiau Kiriona Williams and Kaporangi Raupa Wharemate. They were cousins and often worked together on a farm at Pihama, or at marae at Rātana and Putiki. Williams was 42 at the time, and had 13 children.

On Tuesday February 18, 1936, they took a flat-bottomed boat from Putiki and set off at 6pm to row to Castlecliff, a newspaper clipping from the time records. Their upturned boat was found the next day, near the Imlay wharf, and was said not to be seaworthy.

Eerily, Wharemate's wife heard his pushbike returning to their Morgan St house and being put away in a shed.

"She thought 'Oh, he is home'," Graham says. "She went out and there was no one there."

The body of Wharemate was found five days later, the newspaper recorded, at "a river beach below Gonville".

After that Wharemate could have a tangi, Graham said, but Williams would only have had karakia. His body was never found and some of his children were whāngai-ed, brought up by other families, and lost touch with their Ngāti Apa iwi.

Descendants remembered the drownings on February 5 to 7, 85 years after they happened. They were welcomed to Whangaehu Marae on Friday, bringing their tūpuna represented in photographs. On Saturday Sonny Poutapu and Aroha Wharemata held a service on the riverside, and the seat was unveiled.

It's a lovely piece of craft, Graham said, and made by George Russell out of red jarrah.

After that the visitors returned to Whangaehu Marae for a hākari, stories about the past and entertainment.

"They are one of the top marae in this country for feeding and looking after people," Graham said. "Their service, their meals, was just another level."