https://www.pateahistoricalsociety.org.nz/waitotara-wwi-memorial.html
Private John Morehu was one of the 43 members of the Māori Pioneers who served with the NZ Tunnelling Company and assisted in the late 1916 early 1917 preparations of the Arras caverns for the Battle of Arras, France. John was born in Waitotara, but was working on a farm in Waitara when he enlisted at the age of 22. He sailed from Wellington on the SS Warrimoo on 14 February 1915 with 500 other Soldiers of the first contingent of the Māori Battalion in WWI. These men of the Māori Pioneers entered Avondale camp, Auckland, in October 1914 and left New Zealand in February 1915. By early July he was in Gallipoli, where the Māori Battalion had a combat role with the Wellington Mounted Rifles. When the Gallipoli campaign was abandoned five months later, John spent time in Cairo before heading off to the Western Front.

While he was in Cairo, he was reprimanded for ‘Drunkenness’. Heartening to know they did have a bit of fun amid the horror of it all. After 4 years & 196 days military service abroad, John returned home to a job at the Patea Freezing Works, where he worked until the late 1940’s.