Up the line of the Owaka stream from the town of that name there is a place which was once the centre of a small farming community. It had, at one time, a church, a school, a post office and a hall. All are gone - the church now a cafe at Manapouri - except the hall. The school gates still stand, and a few houses are still lived in. And there is a cemetery - a small cemetery on a hillside overlooking the farms of Purekireki. William Price is buried there.
William Price may have been issued an army uniform but had no army number when he died, indicating a very short period of service. He was called up in June of 1918, while working as a sawmiller, and died of Spanish influenza.
A particularly sad instance was that of Mr. and Mrs. William Price, of Purekireki. Mr. Price, who had been in the district for about 20 years where he had a farm, went to the war, and returned with a recent draft. As he was homeward bound from the North Island, the ruling scourge seized him, and he died in the Dunedin Hospital on November 14th without seeing his family. Of course, the shock seriously affected Mrs. Price, and she was a ready victim to the prevailing trouble. She was taken to the Dunedin Hospital, where she died the following day. There are two orphans left, aged nine and two years. -Otago Witness, 4/12/1918.
Purekireki Cemetery.
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