Kua hinga te tōtara I te wao nui a Tāne(A tōtara tree has fallen within the nice forest of Tāne)
Me tangi, kāpā ko te mate i te marama(Allow us to weep, for this isn’t just like the demise of the moon)
Haere atu rā e te Rangatira, haere ki o tupuna(Farewell Chief, go to your ancestors)
Moe mai ra(Relaxation in peace)
After Sir Barry retired as Manukau Mayor, we had been typically requested how he was.
That so many requested reveals the mark of a person whose impression on folks’s lives mirrored his almost 40 years of public service, 24 of them as Manukau’s Mayor.
In 2007 at his final council assembly his long-standing deputy Anne Sweet described him as “not only a politician, however an envoy and statesman”.
His affect unfold past Manukau – from Samoa, the place he was awarded the title of Seiuli, to the Prepare dinner Islands and elsewhere within the area. Sir Barry led many commerce missions into the Pacific. He additionally took nice satisfaction in our sister metropolis ties with Japan’s Utsunomiya, previous buddies from there visiting him in Pakuranga simply earlier than his passing.
Workers favored and revered Sir Barry, who was all the time seen, energetic and receptive to their concepts.
He cherished shopping for land, typically for parks, as seen as we speak throughout the south, together with Barry Curtis Park in Flat Bush. His imaginative and prescient for a significant neighborhood occasions centre in Manukau resulted within the Due Drop facility on Nice South Highway.
Te Irirangi Drive, Highbrook and Puhinui Highway are simply three of the foremost infrastructure initiatives he championed, whereas the Manukau rail hyperlink started underneath his watch.
As a surveyor and planner, his understanding of progress within the metropolis was helpful, the enterprise neighborhood having fun with working with the council as a result of they may depend on Sir Barry to ship.
He celebrated the range of multicultural Manukau. His opening traces of each civic and neighborhood speech had been all the time began with the greetings of the numerous languages of the south.
Sir Barry was a pacesetter in relationships with iwi and hapū, forming enduring bonds with Waikato-Tainui, particularly with Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and with Tūhoe throughout his early surveying experiences among the many ‘Youngsters of the Mist’, relationships that had been crucial within the 1994 drought when Auckland ran wanting water. It was Sir Barry and Tainui who agreed the long-term answer of accessing water from the Waikato River.
He was an enormous promoter of neighborhood and sporting amenities throughout the big metropolis, and his perception in social justice and fairness had been driving forces that employees and the neighborhood had been totally engaged with all through his management.
Sir Barry’s legacy is important. He might be recognised for his many achievements and can all the time be warmly remembered by his former employees and the neighborhood.
In Sir Barry’s mayoral workplace there hung many pictures of individuals he labored with, met or admired over a few years, from Dame Whina Cooper, Governors- Normal and different notable people. A distinguished plaque additionally hung that mentioned: ‘I make issues occur’. A real reflection of Sir Barry’s contribution to public life.
Relaxation in peace Sir Barry. Moe mai ra.
