Brownlee Gerry: Obituaries — Sir Howard Morrison OBE 
Brownlee Gerry: Obituaries — Sir Howard Morrison OBE 
[Volume:657;Page:6833] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I seek leave to move a motion without notice marking the death of Sir Howard Morrison OBE. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is no objection. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I move  
That the House mark the passing of the prominent New Zealander Sir Howard Morrison 
. It is with great sadness that I have to inform the House that Sir Howard Morrison has passed away. He will be immediately remembered by most New Zealanders as a great entertainer a man who could raise the hairs on the back of one’s neck when he sang “How Great Thou Art”. 
Sir Howard was a leading New Zealander. He was born in 1935 in Rotorua of Te Arawa and Irish ancestry. He was a son of Maori All Black Tem Morrison. Sir Howard started from a humble beginning. One early job was as a meter reader and he was also a surveyor’s chainman and he played rugby at his local club Waikite at the back of the scrum. 
Sir Howard’s musical career started by putting vocal groups together for rugby club socials before he started the Ohinemutu Quartet which evolved into something that will be remembered fondly by many New Zealanders the Howard Morrison Quartet. What started as a humble quartet became so much bigger. From the 1950s through the 1960s Sir Howard Morrison’s quartet sold hit records performed all over the country and toured Australia extensively. When the band retired Sir Howard launched into what was to become a highly successful solo career. He went international and played in clubs and shows extensively throughout Asia Australia and the United States. He performed with big names in show business like Sammy Davis Jr and Glen Campbell. 
Possibly the highlight though of Sir Howard’s career was when he took a simple hymn and turned it into something magnificent. This was his version of “How Great Thou Art”. He performed it in a way that nobody had predicted a royal command performance would produce when the Queen returned to New Zealand in 1981. It became an instant hit holding the No. 1 spot in national charts for some 5 weeks. 
There are far too many highlights in Sir Howard’s 50-year music career to list but in the brief time we have today we can consider that he was indeed a great entertainer and truly the mighty kauri of the New Zealand entertainment scene the Tane Mahuta of New Zealand music. 
But there was far more to Sir Howard Morrison than his musical talents and the glitz of his performing career. He was almost always foremost a New Zealander with a deep-seated bond with and love for his country for his home town and for his people. Sir Howard held a strong desire to be constructive for Maori and always was willing to do something or to work with anyone willing to tackle Maori underachievement. Sir Howard was never shy with his time and talent to help Maori or the Government in a positive way. 
His achievements have been recognised along the way but perhaps the biggest was his knighthood in 1999. The ceremony was held at Sir Howard’s home marae of Ohinemutu where he was given the title “Sir Howard”. He is a New Zealander whose passing will be mourned by us all. There will be a song that will be played to mark his death and that song will be the aptly named “Whakaaria Mai”—“How Great Thou Art”