Tirikatene, Sir Eruera Tihema Teaika (1895-1967), a Maori politician, held Cabinet rank in the New Zealand government from 1957 to 1960. He was minister of forests and associate to the minister of Maori affairs. Edward James Te Aika Tregerthen was born on Jan. 5, 1895, in Kaiapoi, on the South Island of New Zealand. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, he changed his name to the Maori name Eruera Tirikatene and enlisted in a Maori battalion. He was elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1932. For more than 20 years, he was president of the party's Maori advisory council. He was knighted in 1960. He died on Jan. 11, 1967, in Kaiapoi. His daughter Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan succeeded him as a member of Parliament for the Southern Maori.