Asia-Pacific News
Prominent Maori statesman Paul Reeves dies at 78
Aug 14, 2011, 0:36 GMT
Wellington - Sir Paul Reeves, the first Maori to be Governor-General and archbishop of New Zealand, died in Auckland Sunday at the age of 78, a family statement said.
Reeves was Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand from 1980-85, and was appointed Governor-General to represent Queen Elizabeth II, who is the formal head of state of the former British colony.
In 1990, he became the first Anglican Church Consultative Council observer at the United Nations and Assistant Bishop of New York. He was also deputy leader of a Commonwealth observer group to South Africa and chairman of the Nelson Mandela Trust.
Reeves chaired a commission that reviewed the constitution of the South Pacific island state of Fiji from 1995-97 and also worked on a Commonwealth team that studied constitutional reform in Guyana.
Prime Minister John Key said he would be given a state funeral.
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