"Hanahana"
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
Tribute to Late Mlle. Banzet
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete, Feb. 10.
THE Tahitian word Hanahana, in addi tion to its superficial meaning— “splendour, glory”—expresses, as an adjective, those qualities of character and spirit which endow their possessor with worshipful distinction in the esteem of all his fellows.
No other word, we believe, can more fitly describe the honour and reverence in which all Tahiti held Mademoiselle Emilie Helene Banzet, Directrice Hono raire des Ecoles Francaises Indigenes de Papeete, Chevalier de la Legion d’Hon neur, who died on December 13, 1941.
Mile. Banzet was born in France 88 years ago. By descent and blood relation ship, she was allied with many powerful Protestant families of her native coun try. She came to Tahiti in 1885.
As teacher and as head-mistress of the Protestant School at Papeete she had been the guide, mentor and friend of every generation of young women in this community, for over half a century.
During all these years Mile. Banzet’s gentle but inflexible inculcation of “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report” had implanted in her pupils an understanding of those virtues of which she, herself, was a living example.