THE first Queen of the Maori people of New Zealand, who died last week, was ferried to the base of her mist-shrouded mountain grave site by bare-chested rowers in war canoes yesterday. Thousands of New Zealanders — Maori and Pakeha (white New Zealanders) — lined the banks of the Waikato river in an emotional farewell.

Maori chants rang out and elders wailed as the lead canoe carrying the Queen’s coffin, shrouded by a flax canopy, at first drifted then turned and struck out against the river’s strong current, flanked by a dozen other canoes representing the Maori tribes.

Shortly before the body of Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu began the river journey, her eldest son was chosen over her eldest daughter to succeed her. Tuheitia Paki, 51, becomes the seventh Maori monarch from the same family. The body of the Queen, who died last Tuesday, aged 75, was taken by the canoes to the base of Taupiri mountain, on the North Island of New Zealand.

The graves of the Maori monarchs are at the summit. Teams of young men carried the coffin and used ropes to haul it up the steep mountain for the private burial.

The Maori Queen, known as Dame Te Ata, served for 40 years, after succeeding her father in 1966. While the Maori monarchy has no formal constitutional or legal role in New Zealand, it has much prestige with Maori and Pakeha.

The Maori King movement was established in the late 1850s by Maori in the Waikato region to stem land losses to European settlers and to negotiate with the colonial government of the day.

More than 100,000 New Zealanders had filed past Dame Te Ata’s coffin by yesterday morning, when senior tribal leaders, just before the Queen’s funeral, named her eldest son as her successor. Wearing his late mother’s feather cloak, he sat on a carved wooden throne, eyes downcast. He will be known as King Tuheitia. At the formal ascension or “raising-up” ceremony he was tapped on his head with a Bible — a tradition begun in 1858, when the first Maori king was crowned. The same Bible has been used to crown the six previous Maori monarchs.

Moments before his coronation, the crowd was asked if he should be king, to which they replied with a resounding Ae (yes). The new King worked until this week as a university manager and is a well-regarded Maori cultural adviser.

Yesterday’s ceremonies were broadcast live on New Zealand television. At the funeral service messages of condolence were read from Queen Elizabeth, the Prince of Wales, the Pope and Pacific Island leaders. Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister, was present.

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