The discovery and settlement of the Wairarapa region is connected with several prominent figures of New Zealand’s history. Ancestral figures such as Hau-nui-a-nanaia, Kupe, Whatonga, Tara Ika and Toi have all been said to have connections with the region and are responsible for the naming of Wairarapa and its important features and places. It has been estimated that Rangitane settled in the region by about the sixteenth century. Marriage links with Rangitane saw a group of Ngati Kahungunu retreat to the Wairarapa in the subsequent century as the result of internal hapu conflict. The two groups cohabitated mostly in the south Wairarapa for a period, but then the Ngati Kahungunu newcomers negotiated several sections of land for themselves. This process was not seamless and instances of conflict continued between the two iwi over the centuries. The next significant period of change in the area was in the early nineteenth century with the incursion of Te Rauparaha and others. This ushered in an era when many different iwi, including Ngati Whatua, Ngati Awa, Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Tama, and Ngati Mutunga, made advances into the region and some Ngati Kahungunu hapu withdrew.
European incursion into the Wairarapa only began after the New Zealand Company’s Port Nicholson settlement was established. Based on the reports of the company’s exploring and surveying, the southern Wairarapa became one of the first extensive tracts of land in New Zealand to be occupied by Europeans, although the Crown titles, negotiated by Donald McLean, were not obtained until 1853. However, it took substantially longer for settlement to progress beyond Masterton, which was linked to Wellington by road in 1859. This period saw the land along the eastern coastline subdivided into large stations.
Prior to the 1880s, when better road and rail access to Wellington was established which connected eastern Wairarapa farms and small service centre settlements, coastal ports like that at Castlepoint were essential for communications and trade. This lack of access also hindered settlement, however, in the mid-1850s the land between the Whareama and Tinui rivers was purchased by the Crown from the Ngati Kahungunu and Rangitane people, soon to be on-sold to European settlers. Tinui township, meaning many or large cabbage trees, which was also sometimes referred to as Te Nui, was established as a farming service town from the 1860s. By the 1870s this small town was replete with all the facilities one would expect, like churches, a school, a post office and other public buildings, as well as businesses such as blacksmiths and saddlers, cake shops and hotels.
The Maunsell family owned Tinui station and it was this family that went on to construct Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross on their namesake mountain (also known as Tinui-Taipo), within the property. The legacy of this prominent, wealthy Wairarapa family began when Robert and Susan Maunsell immigrated to New Zealand from England in 1835 to set up an Anglican mission. The couple thrived on this work and had several New Zealand-born children. Robert went on to become Archdeacon of Waitemata and then of Auckland, having in the meantime purchased the substantial coastal Wairarapa property which some of his sons occupied in the mid 1860s, forming Tinui Station.
Robert (Junior) and John owned the station and prospered enough to be able to build a grand manor in Masterton, ‘Eridge,’ where the bachelor Robert lived with his brother and sister-in-law who hailed from Wellington’s influential Beauchamp family. The brothers both became prominent local community members serving on many boards and councils including the North Wairarapa County Council. John and Emily Maunsell, a close relative of Katherine Mansfield, had three sons, all of who served in World War One. Later, the youngest son, who had been severely wounded in 1916 and also won the Military Cross, went on to be a founder and joint owner of the iconic New Zealand company Hansell’s in the 1930s. Only Henry Beresford Maunsell, a member of the Wellington Mounted Rifles, was at Gallipoli because his two brothers were in English regiments.
The Tinui community was, like most other communities in New Zealand and Australia, deeply affected by the result of the disastrous ANZAC campaign that lasted nine months, and by the World War One death toll elsewhere as well. Therefore, the Maunsell’s along with the wider community were keen to commemorate this through a series of events on the first ANZAC Day. The day’s events on 25 April 1916 started with a morning religious service at the Church of the Good Shepherd. This service was one of hundreds of religious memorial services throughout New Zealand, Australia, and England that took place on the first official ANZAC Day, setting a precedent for future commemorations. However, because of the recorded 7:30am start for the ANZAC and St Mark’s Day morning service the ceremony at the Tinui Church is believed to be the world’s first ANZAC Day memorial religious service. After the church service the ceremonies then continued with Bugler Hancock of the 13th Regiment, who was at home at Tinui on final leave from the Featherston camp, playing a salute while a Union Jack was ceremonially delivered to and unfurled at Tinui Hall. The flag used in the ceremony had been purchased in July 1915 at a local Wounded Soldiers Fund charity auction for an enormous sum by, the obviously wealthy and patriotic C.F. Vallance.
It is unknown when the final itinerary for the first ANZAC Day commemorations at Tinui were finalised, but the Maunsell family played a key role in the day’s activities. After the church service refreshments were provided at the Maunsell residence at Tinui Station. Afterwards a group of about 50 people made the long steep climb to the summit of Mt Maunsell in the early afternoon to the newly erected memorial cross. Bugler Hancock carried his instrument with him and was again involved, playing The Last Post after everyone present wrote their name in a time capsule which was installed at the foot of the cross. The Cross had been transported up the hill prior to the ceremony by a large group of Boy Scouts. This busy day was completed with another memorial service at Tinui Hall, again presided over by Rev. Basil Ashcroft.
Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross and the ‘imposing ceremony’ that accompanied its instalment was funded by the Maunsell family and it was presented by Mrs Emily Maunsell as a tribute to the ANZACs who had died at Gallipoli. The honouring of local soldiers in this way would have been particularly poignant for Emily because Leslie Beauchamp, Katherine Mansfield’s brother, was killed in action late in 1915, although in Flanders and not Gallipoli. A later general World War One memorial in Tinui township, which listed the casualties from the area, was not constructed until the 1920s. At least two of the local men in this roll of honour died in 1915 at Gallipoli, and because of the small size of the community it is likely that most people would have known these men and their families personally. One of those killed was Private John Robert Dunn, who is notorious for being one of the few New Zealand soldiers to be court marshalled and sentenced to death during World War One. His sentence was subsequently reversed, however Dunn was soon killed in the attack on Chunuk Bair. Because the World War One obelisk memorial was yet to be built, the Cross would have had added personal meaning for the Dillon family, who lived at Tinui Station under its shadow, when Lance Corporal William Arthur Dillon was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.
New Zealand memorials to those who died in World War One started to be erected while the war was still taking place, and the Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross Site is an early example. One of the earliest World War One memorials is in Kaitaia, which was unveiled in March 1916. Other examples of early ANZAC memorials include the ANZAC Memorial Tree in Eastbourne (14 July 1915) and the ANZAC Memorial Flagpole in Petone which was erected just before the first ANZAC Day, on April 8 1916. The men to whom the Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross was dedicated were buried overseas, so for the majority of their families this meant that a war memorial became a surrogate grave at which they could go through the rituals associated with death in the absence of access to the person’s actual burial site. The majority of war memorials were constructed within a decade of the cessation of World War One, and these were primarily in the form of a monument, or smaller gestures like honour rolls in established buildings. This was because many felt that functional community structures such as libraries, halls, and bridges, were inappropriate as the community should not benefit when the purpose of a memorial was to recognise the sacrifice of others. In this way the ANZAC memorial at Tinui is rare in the form that it took, but conformed with ideas at the time about the most suitable means of commemorating the war dead. The Cross and the Tinui War Memorial Hall, which was conceived in 1947 and completed in 1954, indicate the softening of opinions in respect to functional memorials by the end of World War Two.
Given the Maunsell family’s involvement with the introduction and spread of Christianity in New Zealand, the construction of a memorial in the form of a cross was probably an obvious choice because of parallels, which were highlighted at the time by Rev. Ashcroft, between the crucifixion of Jesus and those men who had sacrificed themselves in the war. The timing of the ANZAC Day commemorations were also poignant in this respect, falling only a couple of days after Easter. From the financial contribution and the Cross’s location it is clear that the Maunsell family took the lead on the project, but it is unclear whether the idea for the memorial originated with them. Despite the Maunsells taking the lead on the project the strong attendance at the various services and ceremonies demonstrates that the community in general had a desire to commemorate the first ANZAC Day through the creation of a landmark and permanent memorial to those who died and fought at Gallipoli.
A local reporter commented that ANZAC Day was interesting because ‘…after being without a military anniversary for so long we should be given one, not of victory, but of failure.’ ANZAC Day was not meant as a day ‘…to be vainglorious, but to keep green the memory of the soldiers who covered themselves in glory in a splendid failure.’ The commemorative nature of the Cross not only had significance to those in the vicinity of Tinui, as a tribute to those local men who had died at Gallipoli and more broadly during World War One in general, but it also had national and trans-Tasman resonances as an ANZAC memorial. The ANZAC legend was forged at Gallipoli, which was a devastating campaign and one that solidified the horror of the war in the psyches of those back in New Zealand and Australia due to the incomprehensible death toll. However, this also evoked a sense of national pride amongst the ANZAC countries, as is evident in the ANZAC Day commemorations that have taken place since 1916 when the Tinui memorial was erected. Importantly, the legacy of Gallipoli and the ANZACs has been singled out as a key component in the evolution of the national identities of both New Zealand and Australia.
Initially the Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross was constructed from Jarrah hardwood with a metal facing. However, despite having this protective metal skin, the Cross’s exposed position lead to the degrading of the timber, which meant it needed to be replaced in 1965. Again the community were heavily involved in this process and they erected an aluminium equivalent in the original memorial’s stead. Over one hundred local school children also participated by helping to lug bags of sand and cement up Mount Maunsell/Tinui Taipo for the concrete base which the Cross was set in.
Regular annual pilgrimages to the Cross site continue and this ANZAC Day event is still well attended by the local community and visitors. These commemorations are organised with the permission of the landowners, whose private properties are crossed to reach the summit of Mt Maunsell/Tinui-Taipo. The Tinui ANZAC Memorial Cross Site is held high regard locally and in recent years has gained a national profile. There have been numerous media articles about the structure, its history, and the community’s desire for it to be recognised as a historic place. This coverage has mostly been in Wairarapa and Wellington newspapers, but has also featured in publications like the Southland Times.
