	He was educated at Napier Boys' High School and Gisborne Boys' High School. He was a Captain in the Māori Battalion in World War II, and returned to farming after the war. He was a foundation member of the New Zealand Maori Council for ten years, and was chairman of the Horouta Tribal Executive between 1956 and 1970. In 1949 he was a Māori member of the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations.