PERSONAL RECORD. OSLER. [FUNERAL PROCESSION WAIROA]

[Wairoa funeral procession for victims of the Kōpuawhara flash flood.]

Union Jack-draped coffins on back of a black truck (“General Transport Services Ltd. Wairoa” on door of cab) proceeding slowly along Paul Street with many onlookers on footpath. (A “Big Tree Pump” petrol sign can be glimpsed, painted onto the corrugated iron wall of a [garage].) Two men with hats doffed walk beside the truck on the road side. [A few] cars follow leading a lengthy procession of men on foot, hats in hand - including Prime Minister Peter Fraser - coming from an intersecting street. Many dark cars then follow in line - as does Osler’s red work van (emblazoned “Eat Osler’s Malted Milk Bread. Full of Vitality: Energy. Phone 141”) with a black ribbon stretched to the hood ornament.

“Twenty men and one woman drowned” on 19th February, 1938 “when a sudden cloudburst sent a wall of water surging through a public works camp in the Kōpuawhara Valley near Māhia. Located on the banks of the Kōpuawhara Stream, the no. 4 camp accommodated workers building the Wairoa–Gisborne railway.” - New Zealand History; https://nzhistory.govt.nz/21-people-drowned-after-cloudburst-at-kopuawhara; retrieved 18/01/2017.