St Paul’s Memorial Church, consecrated on 5 December 1937, is of historical, cultural, spiritual and social heritage significance as a physical testament of the long history of the Anglican mission at Pūtiki, Whanganui. It is of outstanding architectural, aesthetic cultural and traditional significance for its magnificent interior decoration, showcasing revived Māori traditions of carving, tukutuku panelling, kōwhaiwhai-painted rafters, and kākaho-lined ceilings in a special and striking fusion with the European neo-Gothic architectural form of the building. It is an embodiment of the influences that Christianity and Māori culture have had on each other. The church has significance for its association with Sir Apirana Ngata’s programme to revive traditional Māori art, and location in a cultural landscape of great value to tangata whenua. The adjacent church hall, built in 1953, features innovative interior decoration by eminent artist Dr Cliff Whiting that includes contemporary interpretations of customary art. The people of Pūtiki-wharanui were introduced to Christianity in the mid to late 1830s by Wiremu Eruera Te Tauri, a rangatira of Ngāti Tūwharetoa hapū Ngāti Te Rangi-ita who married Pūtiki chief Te Mawae’s daughter. A few years later, Henry Williams of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) was the first European missionary to visit Whanganui. At Pūtiki he found a community eager for Christianity. The Pūtiki Mission Station was formally established in 1840. St Paul’s Memorial Church is the fifth church built at the mission station. Designed and built by Arthur J. Cutler, based on a neo-Gothic design by Clere & Clere, the new church elicited an outpouring of contributions for a building that would commemorate the people of the Pūtiki Māori Mission throughout its history. The relatively plain plastered exterior of the timber-framed building contrasts with the richness of the interior; the off-centre placement of the entrance to the nave the only structural hint of the traditional Māori design on display inside the single-gabled nave and polygonal chancel. Ngata designed the interior scheme to showcase his School of Māori Arts and Crafts’ work, with tutors (led by renowned master carver Pineamine Taiapa) and students passing on their knowledge to local carvers and weavers. A wealth of memorial furnishings was created, resulting in an interior alive with intricately decorated elements that are imbued with great social, cultural and spiritual meaning. A hall was built next door in 1953 to house the church’s social, educational and cultural activities; it has been used as a venue for many community groups and events since. An early example of the community projects he would become known for, Cliff Whiting’s decoration of the interior with kōwhaiwhai, tukutuku and kākaho in 1972 provided continuity with Ngata’s earlier work by showcasing and teaching these forms of Toi Māori to the next generation, including remarkable modern interpretations of the arts. The conservation of St Paul’s Memorial Church from 2014 created a further opportunity to pass on this traditional knowledge, while ensuring the ongoing future of the buildings and their taonga of Toi Māori.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9718
Date Entered
4th April 2019
Date of Effect
4th April 2019
City/District Council
Whanganui District
Region
Horizons (Manawatū-Whanganui) Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 1 DP 11329 (RT WN462/9), part of the land described as Pt Church Mission Station Putiki Māori Reserve (RT WN672/22) and part of the land described as Legal Road, Wellington Land District, and the buildings known as St Paul’s Memorial Church (Anglican) and the Pūtiki Parish Hall thereon and their fittings and fixtures including: carved entrance archway, baptistery canopy, pulpit, pews and choir stalls, altar rails, organ screen, memorial plaques, four memorial windows, all tukutuku panels, carvings and kōwhaiwhai paintings, and the following chattels: prayer desk, copy of painting by George Sherriff of third Pūtiki mission station church, illuminated war memorial cross, Prince Edward memorial photo, Richard Taylor photo, A.O. Williams photo, framed list of original memorials, framed Pūtiki Mission Station land documents, font and copper jug, altar, carved candlesticks, wooden altar cross, brass bible stand, lectern, credence table, sanctuary chair, Bishop’s Chair , processional cross, wrought iron flower stands, sterling silver communion chalice presented by Hori Kingi Hipango . (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Lot 1 DP 11329 (RT WN462/9), Pt Church Mission Station Putiki Māori Reserve (RT WN672/22), Legal Road, Wellington Land District
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Private/No Public Access
List Number
9718
Date Entered
4th April 2019
Date of Effect
4th April 2019
City/District Council
Whanganui District
Region
Horizons (Manawatū-Whanganui) Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes part of the land described as Lot 1 DP 11329 (RT WN462/9), part of the land described as Pt Church Mission Station Putiki Māori Reserve (RT WN672/22) and part of the land described as Legal Road, Wellington Land District, and the buildings known as St Paul’s Memorial Church (Anglican) and the Pūtiki Parish Hall thereon and their fittings and fixtures including: carved entrance archway, baptistery canopy, pulpit, pews and choir stalls, altar rails, organ screen, memorial plaques, four memorial windows, all tukutuku panels, carvings and kōwhaiwhai paintings, and the following chattels: prayer desk, copy of painting by George Sherriff of third Pūtiki mission station church, illuminated war memorial cross, Prince Edward memorial photo, Richard Taylor photo, A.O. Williams photo, framed list of original memorials, framed Pūtiki Mission Station land documents, font and copper jug, altar, carved candlesticks, wooden altar cross, brass bible stand, lectern, credence table, sanctuary chair, Bishop’s Chair , processional cross, wrought iron flower stands, sterling silver communion chalice presented by Hori Kingi Hipango . (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Lot 1 DP 11329 (RT WN462/9), Pt Church Mission Station Putiki Māori Reserve (RT WN672/22), Legal Road, Wellington Land District
Cultural Significance
Cultural Significance or Value The customary art forms on the interior of St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall are taonga tuku iho of great cultural significance. The practice of their creation, and subsequent conservation, continued and extended traditions and knowledge passed down through the generations. The patterns and symbols employed in the designs each have specific cultural meaning and represent both pan-tribal stories and locally-specific ancestors and flora. The hall’s contemporary kowhaiwhai is a demonstration of the new cultural directions for Māori art that were forged by Cliff Whiting and others in the 1960s and 1970s. The cultural significance of the church and hall is enhanced by its location within the Pūtiki Mission Station, a site with long associations for tangata whenua. Social Significance or Value St Paul’s Memorial Church has outstanding social significance. Filled with memorials to over 25 individuals, fundraised, crafted and cared for through the contributions of many, this building resonates with love and respect for those who have made the church the special place it is today. The strength of the artistry and sentiment of these furnishings and objects forms a uniquely powerful collection. The Pūtiki Parish Hall has, since 1953, been a centre for countless social gatherings, meetings, Pūtiki Māori Club practices, and other uses that demonstrate its value as a place where community ties are strengthened. Spiritual Significance or Value St Paul’s Memorial Church has spiritual significance as a place of Anglican worship for over 80 years, continuing the presence of the faithful on this site since the Pūtiki Mission Station was established in 1840. The architecture and furnishings embody and facilitate the key elements of prayer, ritual, music and reverence, while the Toi Māori decoration reflects and inspires religious awe. Traditional Significance or Value The interior decoration of St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall perpetuates the traditions of customary Māori art. The original interior decoration in 1937 was facilitated by those who were committed to re-enabling Māori communities to create forms of art such as whakairo, tukutuku, kōwhaiwhai, tāniko and kākaho that appeared to be in decline at the time. The School of Māori Arts and Crafts’ ethos of sharing and growing these traditional skills saw new generations learning this valuable customary knowledge. This philosophy was continued by the work of Cliff Whiting in the 1972 decoration of the parish hall’s interior, and the 2016 conservation of the church’s interior has sustained the transmission of this traditional knowledge. As the fifth church built at the mission station, St Paul’s also represents the long tradition of Anglican worship in the Pūtiki community.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value St Paul’s Memorial Church has special historical significance as an embodiment of the Anglican Māori Mission’s work in New Zealand. The church reflects the incorporation of Christianity into Te Ao Māori and the influence and integration of Te Ao Māori into the Anglican Church in Aotearoa. As the fifth church built on the Pūtiki Mission Station, St Paul’s Memorial Church continues the ministry provided since 1840 when Henry Williams established the station as part of the Church Missionary Society’s expansion throughout the North Island. Its historical value is deepened by its association with Sir Apirana Ngata and the artists and students of the School of Māori Arts and Crafts, and its place in Ngata’s programme to revive a distinct Māori cultural identity to facilitate social and economic reform.
Physical Significance
Aesthetic Significance or Value St Paul’s Memorial Church has outstanding aesthetic value for the sheer beauty and artistry of its interior decoration. In contrast with the relative plainness of the exterior, the customary Māori art forms embellishing the interior are astonishing in their richness, complexity, meaning and quality. Almost every element of the interior is touched by a form of Toi Māori including whakairo, tukutuku, kōwhaiwhai, tāniko and kākaho, creating an awe-inspiring space alive with colour, form, texture and expression. The striking contemporary kōwhaiwhai in the Pūtiki Parish Hall extends the conversation between these art forms and is a valued and early example of Cliff Whiting’s visionary artistic innovation. Architectural Significance or Value From the exterior, St Paul’s Memorial Church presents as a typical church from the European tradition of ecclesiastical architecture. It is on entering the building that the architectural significance of the melding of European and Māori architecture truly becomes apparent. The offset entrance porch, the carved chancel arch and the wealth of customary forms of decoration demonstrate that the interior has been thought through in the manner of a wharenui. The architectural elements and furnishings have been applied to echo traditional features such as poupou, maihi, amo and koruru, yet also blend perfectly with the building’s functioning as a place of Anglican worship. Technological Significance or Value The interior decoration of St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall demonstrates great artistic creativity and high quality workmanship. The Toi Māori embellishment not only embodies the twentieth century re-emergence of Māori customary arts as applied to ecclesiastical architecture, but also extends and develops these arts through innovations such as Ngata’s combining of tāniko patterns in the church’s tukutuku work, and Dr Cliff Whiting’s contemporary kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku in the parish hall.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history The establishment of the Anglican Church in New Zealand was facilitated through the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, who were the first to arrive in the country. St Paul’s Memorial Church is directly associated with this as the Pūtiki Mission Station was founded as part of the expansion of the CMS’s mission to Māori throughout New Zealand, as requested by Pūtiki rangatira who wanted to incorporate Christianity into their lives. The fifth church built on the mission station, St Paul’s is therefore associated with a place of Whanganui’s earliest Christian worship, and reflects the enduring impact of Christianity on Māori and New Zealand society, and the uniquely Māori Christianity that was created. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall have outstanding significance for their layers of association with many people and ideas of importance in New Zealand history. Sir Apirana Ngata (who fought against the marginalisation of Māori culture and made many great political and cultural contributions to New Zealand), included St Paul’s Memorial Church as a flagship whare karakia project in his programme of the revival of Māori customary art forms. Many significant artists worked on the buildings, including master carver Pineamine Taiapa, one of the principal tutors of the School of Māori Arts and Crafts; Oriwha Haddon; and Dr Cliff Whiting, among many others. The church has direct links with many significant clergy and missionaries, including four generations of the Williams family of Anglican missionaries, Reverend Richard Taylor and his family, and Reverend Frederick Bennett, New Zealand’s first bishop who was Māori and the first Bishop of Aotearoa – a bishopric that Ngata helped institute. The church’s memorials and the history of these people’s interactions with the Pūtiki Mission Station keep their memory alive. The church has also been visited by many dignitaries including Governors-General and royalty. (d) The importance of the place to tangata whenua St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall are closely associated with the adjacent Pūtiki Marae, and the urupā that is the resting place for many Pūtiki tangata whenua. The church and hall’s importance to the identity of Pūtiki tangata whenua is reflected in the interwoven history of the community and the mission station, which was established at the request of Pūtiki rangatira on land gifted by them. The fifth church could not have been built without the huge support from the Māori community who imbued the very fabric of the building and its contents with their culture, traditions, artistry and memories. (e) The community association with, or public esteem for the place The significant community esteem for St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall is demonstrated by the ongoing care and respect shown to the buildings, with the major conservation efforts since 2014 the latest in a programme of veneration of the church’s special taonga of Toi Māori. The wealth of memorial furnishings and objects themselves are an earlier demonstration of the place’s importance to its people. As a church and hall the buildings are natural gathering places, and the venues for significant life events as well as intimate spiritual reflection. For many of the congregation, St Paul’s Memorial Church is a place of central importance which they have a lifelong connection to. In many cases these connections are deepened beyond a lifetime through their ancestors’ connections to the Pūtiki Mission Station, and the spirituality and culture that binds them all together. (f) The potential of the place for public education The interiors of the buildings have special potential to inform the public about forms of Māori art. St Paul’s Memorial Church is a key site to appreciate traditional forms of Toi Māori such as whakairo, kōwhaiwhai, tukutuku, tāniko and kākaho, due to the wealth and expertise of examples of display. Cliff Whiting’s work in the parish hall can teach how these traditions were extended through contemporary explorations of new materials and designs. Each time conservation takes place the buildings can offer practical opportunities for people to learn these art forms. The public can also learn about the history of the Pūtiki Mission Station through the many memorials. This information is accessible to visitors to the church, including the programme of school visits hosted by the parish. (g) The technical accomplishment, value, or design of the place The interior of St Paul’s Memorial Church demonstrates excellence in the design and execution of customary Māori art forms. It is of special interest for the application of Toi Māori to Western ecclesiastical architecture, and as a flagship whare karakia project in Sir Apirana Ngata’s twentieth-century programme reviving customary Māori culture. The outstanding technical accomplishment of the church interior is shown in the combination of whakairo work led by nationally renowned master carver Pineamine Taiapa, the expert tāniko and tukutuku weaving, and the ornate kōwhaiwhai painting by Oriwha Haddon. Considered by Ngata in 1937 as the ‘most beautiful example of the application of Māori art to church decoration in the country’, the interior of St Paul’s Memorial Church has retained its authenticity and intactness, with the only changes – subsequent additions of memorial windows – enhancing its significance. Cliff Whiting’s kōwhaiwhaiō and tukutuku work in the Pūtiki Parish Hall is a fine and early example of his significant artistic and cultural innovation; a contemporary visual expression that balances modern elements with traditional forms to complement the neighbouring church interior. (h) The symbolic or commemorative value of the place St Paul’s Memorial Church has outstanding commemorative value. The building was consciously created in memory of the people of the Pūtiki Mission Station, and holds memorials to over 25 individuals as well as a collective memorial to the district’s war dead. The quality of these memorial furnishings and objects, many made in traditional Māori art forms, augments their meaning with layers of cultural significance. (j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places St Paul’s Memorial Church is one of only six known whare karakia projects of the School of Māori Arts and Crafts. It is among the most highly ornamented Māori church interiors in New Zealand. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural area St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall are located within the Pūtiki Mission Station and continue the 180-year-long tradition of Anglican worship at the location. Much of the mission station is now in pasture, and it is possible that archaeological remnants of the previous churches, mission houses and schools exist under the ground. The mission station’s trees are thought to have seeded many of the district’s oaks and willows. The church and hall are closely connected to the adjacent urupā and Pūtiki Marae, in a landscape of historical and cultural significance that includes former battlegrounds, pā and kainga. Summary of Significance or Values St Paul’s Memorial Church and Pūtiki Parish Hall is of special and outstanding heritage significance to New Zealand. The quality, artistry and cultural meaning demonstrated by the buildings’ magnificent interior decoration make this an important place to appreciate and learn about customary and contemporary forms of Māori art and architecture, and a stunning embodiment of aesthetic, architectural, technological, traditional and cultural heritage value. St Paul’s Memorial Church and the Pūtiki Parish Hall is a physical testament to the influence of the Anglican Church on Māori and the influence of Māori on the Anglican Church in Aotearoa. The place has special historical value for its associations with many people and ideas of importance to New Zealand history. These include the establishment of the Anglican Church via the Church Missionary Society, and notable clergy such as Henry, Samuel, Alfred and Wilfrid Williams, Richard Taylor, and Frederick Bennett; also, Sir Apirana Ngata’s twentieth century revival of traditional Māori art forms, and the many master artists who have worked on the church and hall, including Pineamine Taiapa and Dr Cliff Whiting. The decoration of the church and parish hall has repeatedly provided the opportunity for practical training in traditional art forms, and their contemporary interpretations. Outstanding social, cultural and traditional values are on display in the many memorial furnishings and objects created especially for the church in memory of those who have contributed to the Pūtiki Mission over the decades. These connections are enhanced by the place’s location within a landscape of cultural and historical significance. The spiritual values of the church, and the congregation’s love for it, are evident to all who enter the buildings.
Construction Professional
Biography
Pineamine Taiapa was born at Tikitiki on the East Coast on 6 June 1901. His mother, Maraea Te Iritawa, and his father, Tamati Taiapa, were of Te Whanau-a-Hinerupe, a hapu of Ngati Porou. His mother was also connected to Te Whanau-a-Te Aotaihi, Te Whanau-a-Umuariki and others. Pine was the fifth of fourteen children, and was adopted at birth by a bachelor uncle, who wanted a child to whom he could pass on his traditional knowledge. Pine was to say later that he knew whakapapa including 10,000 names. He returned to his parents only after his uncle's death. He was also well educated in Pakeha knowledge, attending Te Aute College from 1917, where he excelled at boxing and rugby. He was fluent in English and Maori. After leaving school Pine Taiapa farmed family land at Tikitiki, worked as a surveyor’s chainman, and continued to play rugby. He represented Poverty Bay in 1921 and the East Coast in 1922 and 1923; in these years he was a forward in the Maori All Black team which toured Australia. Despite his education, Pine was unsure what he wanted to do until the carving of the Maori war memorial church at Tikitiki commenced about 1924. An old carver, Hone Ngatoto, came to work on the church, and boarded with the Taiapa family. Pine was deputed to fetch and carry for the old man, and to make his tea. Blocked by etiquette from asking directly for tuition, Pine watched the work for six months until an opportunity came to handle a chisel. A row ensued, but eventually Pine was permitted to work alongside the old man. Apirana Ngata had noted the difficulty in obtaining carvers to work on the Tikitiki church, and in 1926 succeeded in establishing a Board of Maori Arts. A School of Maori Arts was formally established at Rotorua in 1927, and Pine Taiapa was one of its first students. His teacher, Rotohiko Haupapa, was using only the paring chisel, and was not keen to pass the secrets of Te Arawa carving skills to students from Ngati Porou. On inspection of the work at Rotorua Ngata noted the absence of the flowing lines achieved by the carvers of Porourangi, a meeting house built at Waiomatatini in 1888. Pine too, who had swiftly mastered all Rotohiko would teach, felt something was missing, and many times dreamed that he was climbing a mountain, searching among ancient carving styles for something lost. After a while he realised he was looking for techniques associated with the adze. In 1929 Ngata instructed Pine to find an expert in the use of the adze, telling him to visit the many hapu of the East Coast, seek out surviving elders with the requisite knowledge, and get them to teach him the dying art. He had no success until he was advised to go to Eramiha Kapua of Te Arawa, then living at Te Teko. With Ngata’s agreement, Pine visited Eramiha on 30 January 1930, and persuaded him to go to Rotorua to teach the students the art of adzing. Adzing techniques released Pine Taiapa's skills. Swift flowing lines instead of painstakingly chiselled detail meant that he could carve not only better but faster, although he still used the chisel for his detailed work; his carving was renowned for its fine finish. At times he carved from 5 a.m. until midnight, with only brief rests. Between 1927 and 1940 he worked on 64 houses, including Te Hono ki Rarotonga (also named Te Au ki Tonga) at Tokomaru Bay; the carvings were done mainly in Rotorua from 1928 until 1933 and it was opened in 1934. Pine’s younger brother, Hone, also worked on the house. Another house, Te Whitireia at Whangara, completed in 1939, was regarded by Pine himself as the best he had done. It held special significance for him as a spiritual centre of his own Ngati Porou people. From 1934 Pine worked intermittently on the centennial house at Waitangi. At first this was under Harold Hamilton, but after his death Pine himself supervised the work, and most of the carvings were done under his direction. He also worked on other houses. Ngata aimed at the revival of carving all over the country, and as soon as there was money available for a house he sent Pine and his colleagues to make a start. When the locals’ money ran out his team moved on, returning when the community had raised money for the next stage. Kapua had taught his pupils not to bother with carving tapu, fearing that in their ignorance of the exact wording and deeper meanings of rituals, they might err more dangerously than if they ignored the whole matter. Pine regarded himself and his pupils as free from this burden: he was even prepared to teach women to carve. Yet each time he finished a house, he placed one of the chisels behind a tukutuku, unwilling to separate the mauri (life force) of the tool from that of the carvings it had created. He was also conscious that to many people his work was tapu, and he was ready to use their awe to protect his carvings if the need arose. In the 1930s he carved a door lintel in the likeness of the female ancestor Parengaope for the meeting house Raukawa at Otaki. When King Koroki was invited to open the house, the Tainui elders warned that they would not allow him to enter it beneath this ancestor, in case his tapu was infringed by her exposed sexual organs. Pine refused to take the carving down, and suggested to the owners of the house that they take that risk themselves. Ngata attempted to defuse the situation and a compromise was eventually reached. Pine Taiapa used every opportunity to teach local communities the skills of their ancestors. To make the centennial house at Waitangi representative, the design included 14 pairs of poupou (posts) carved in styles taken from every tribal area. In Raukawa and other houses he designed the tukutuku work, made by a local team under his direction, to be similarly representative. He taught his trainees the names of the patterns and their meanings, each portraying some aspect of community and tribal life. Because of these inner meanings, important to the Maori world view, he refused to allow decorative innovation. His own attitude to change was ambivalent. Working with a party from Te Whakatohea on the kowhaiwhai (rafters) of the meeting house of the Taihoa marae at Wairoa involved restoration work, and the mounting of the tekoteko (figurehead), Te Otane, on the apex of the house. The tekoteko had been lying in brambles behind a local church for decades. Pine rescued it and gave it to a young worker to sand off; he discovered that the tekoteko’s penis had been removed by Christian missionaries. Outraged by the desecration, he suggested that Pine carve and attach a new one. Pine refused, saying that the crime should never be covered up. Pine used traditionally carved houses and carvings as his models, yet his work shows a degree of transition from the stylisation of traditional carving towards more naturalistic figures. He was not above a joke at the expense of both tradition and his hosts. One of his masterpieces is reckoned to be a carving of the early ancestor, Paikea, and his whale (on which he travelled to New Zealand) at Whangara; Pine gave the whale a schnapper tail. In 1940 Pine Taiapa enlisted in the 28th New Zealand (Maori) Battalion. He fought in the North African campaign as a second lieutenant and, from April 1942, as a lieutenant. In 1941 he led a haka party at Cairo to entertain General Freyberg. He was wounded on 15 December 1941. He was promoted to captain in October 1942 and returned to New Zealand in 1943. Pine Taiapa married three times. His first wife, Mary Perston of Ngati Porou, died in 1941. There were no surviving children of the marriage. His second wife, Mereana Raukete Ngapo, daughter of Te Urupa Ngapo of Ngati Porou and his wife, Paki Te Rau-o-te-ngutu of Te Whakatohea, died in 1949. They, too, had no surviving children. On 1 December 1951 at Tuparoa, Pine Taiapa married Mereaira Te Ruawai Grace, daughter of Te Pua and Keita Te Moana Grace. They had three children and adopted another. Pine had at least one more natural son and informally adopted many more children. From 1943 Taiapa became involved in rehabilitating returned servicemen. In 1944 he was one of five Maori rehabilitation officers appointed; his area was the East Coast, centred at Gisborne. His district was large and Pine had little enthusiasm for paperwork, yet he arranged housing loans and other benefits for the returned men from his own company with such enthusiasm that the department attempted to curb his activity. By April 1946 he had been released to return to his carving. Perhaps because of his increasing family responsibilities, about 1951 Pine Taiapa quit full-time carving and returned to sheepfarming at Tikitiki. There had never been any money in carving; while at the Rotorua school he had averaged only £2 per week. He also had a small income from leased land. Nevertheless, he continued to carve, working on another 39 houses between 1946 and 1971. In many ways this was his period of greatest influence. His standing on the marae was very high; he possessed the knack of including all his audience in his whaikorero (oratory) whether they understood Maori or not, switching fluently from Maori to English. He was a kindly, charming man, patient with his students, who, in a gesture of affection, anglicised his name to ‘Pine’ (as in pine cone). He sat and listened to the old people on the marae, and incorporated their stories in the designs for their houses. Pine gave lectures, was involved in adult education and taught carving and tukutuku work at Omarumutu, Tikitiki, Hicks Bay, Tauranga and at Victoria University of Wellington. He would use the people he had trained in one area to start the work in the next, so that the circle of expertise was always widening. He was influential in farming circles too: at his suggestion a Waiapu branch of the Young Farmers’ Club was founded in September 1954, with all of its members Maori. Pine Taiapa also ventured into writing. He published ‘How the kumara came to New Zealand’ in Te Ao Hou in 1958; the following year he won first prize in the magazine’s literary competition with a traditional story, 'Haere ma te tuaraki korua e manaaki’. In 1960 and 1961 he published important articles on ‘The art of adzing’, committing his and Eramiha Kapua’s teachings to paper. He wrote booklets explaining the plan and identities of the carvings of various houses he had designed and worked on, some of which were published. He produced a maramataka (calendar) and kept meticulous whakapapa books. Copies of these have been preserved in the Alexander Turnbull Library. Pine Taiapa remained active, carving and lecturing throughout the 1960s. In 1966 he launched the first Maori arts course to be included in the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand’s annual school of music at Ardmore. He died at Tikitiki on 9 February 1972 aged 70, survived by his wife and children. His tangihanga, held at the Rahui marae, was attended by more than 3,000 people. He was buried at Tikitiki on 11 February 1972. Monuments to Pine Taiapa’s prowess as a master carver feature in over a hundred marae throughout the country, and in many institutions, including Te Aute College and Tikitiki Maori District High School. Sometimes regarded as the greatest carver this country has produced, Pine Taiapa was certainly one of the two most prolific; the other was his younger brother, Hone. Only Apirana Ngata had a greater impact on Maori cultural resurgence in the twentieth century. Pine Taiapa was also a great teacher and motivator, and thanks to his work many aspects of Maori art survived and took on new life. Angela Ballara. 'Taiapa, Pineamine', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 4-Mar-2014 URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4t3/taiapa-pineamine
Name
Pineamine Taiapa
Type
Carver
Biography
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Name
Whiting, Cliff
Type
Artist
Biography
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Name
Cutler, Arthur J
Type
Builder
Biography
No biography is currently available for this construction professional
Name
Haddon, Oriwa Tahupotiki (Edward Oliver)
Type
Artist
Biography
Apirana Ngata (1874-1954) was educated at Wai-o-Matatini Native School, Te Aute College and Canterbury University College. In 1893 he graduated Bachelor of Arts and in 1894 he became the first Maori to graduate Master of Arts (with honours in political science). He completed a law degree in 1896 and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1897. Two years later he became the travelling secretary to the Te Aute Students Association (Young Maori Party). He was organising inspector to the Maori Council from 1902-04, and then sat on the Royal Commission appointed under the Native Lands Act 1904 (1905), the Commission of Investigation into the Te Aute and Wanganui Trusts (1906), and the Commission on Native Land Tenure (1907-08). He represented the Eastern Maori electorate in the House of Representatives (1905-1943), was a member of the Executive Council representing the Maori race (1909-12), and was Minister of Native Affairs (1928-34). He was knighted in 1927. Sir Apirana devoted his life to the betterment of the Maori people. He promoted the best use of their land and the reawakening of belief in their culture and language. He wrote a Maori grammar and a collection of waiata, patere and oriori under the title "Nga Moteatea". Sir Apirana was also interested in Maori arts and crafts and the construction of ornate but durable meeting houses.
Name
Ngata, Sir Apirana Turupa
Type
Designer
Construction Details
Finish Year
1937
Start Year
1936
Type
Original Construction
Description
Installation of stained glass memorial window to Rev A.O. and Mrs Williams in St Paul’s Memorial Church
Finish Year
1946
Type
Modification
Description
Original construction of Putiki Parish Hall
Finish Year
1953
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Installation of stained glass memorial window to Mrs Heeni Scott and Mrs Ani Katene in St Paul’s Memorial Church
Finish Year
1956
Type
Modification
Description
Addition of kitchen to Pūtiki Parish Hall
Finish Year
1962
Type
Addition
Description
Lych-gate constructed
Finish Year
1971
Type
Addition
Description
Interior decoration of Putiki Parish Hall
Finish Year
1972
Type
Modification
Description
Installation of stone-cut memorial window to the Pūtiki Mission School
Finish Year
1978
Type
Modification
Description
Original roofing iron of church covered with decramastic tiles
Finish Year
1978
Type
Modification
Description
Installation of stone-cut memorial window to Nancy Donald
Period
1990s
Type
Modification
Description
Conservation of St Paul’s Memorial Church exterior, including removal of decramastic roof tiles; installation of new entrance path, insulation, fire protection and heating systems
Finish Year
2014
Type
Refurbishment/renovation
Description
Conservation of tukutuku panels in St Paul’s Memorial Church; renovation of toilet facilities in Pūtiki Parish Hall
Finish Year
2016
Type
Refurbishment/renovation
Construction Materials
Timber (heart rimu and tōtara), plaster, galvanised corrugated iron, glass, kākaho, kiekie, harakeke, pīngao, paint, pāua shell, silk fibre
Whanganui and Pūtiki-wharanui The Whanganui region, dominated by the river of the same name, has a long history of Māori occupation. Te Awa o Whanganui has great cultural importance and was a major food resource and transport route. Its catchment area is recognised as the rohe of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, named after the ancestor Haunui-a Pāpārangi. His descendants intermarried with Ngā Paerangi, the original inhabitants of the lower Whanganui River area. The three siblings Hinengākau, Tamaūpoko and Tūpoho are the guardian tūpuna (ancestors) of the river; Tūpoho is often associated with its lower reaches. Pūtiki Wharanui a Tamatea Pokai Whenua (shortened to Pūtiki-wharanui or Pūtiki) fishing pā was established centuries ago on the lower river’s southern bank, near the future site of the Cobham (State Highway 3) bridge. Its people became known as Ngāti Tūpoho and were closely associated with Ngāti Tūmango and Ngāti Ruakā; these groups defended the kainga from attacks by various northern taua in the early nineteenth century. By the 1830s Pūtiki-wharanui was ‘the developing window for Whanganui iwi on the wider world … a point of contact with visiting Europeans’. The first Pākehā that Whanganui Māori met were traders, in 1831 and then 1834. It was five years before the next recorded visit from a European. Missionary Henry Williams of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) had arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1823, and by the mid-1830s he felt confident that the Anglican mission could be expanded to other parts of the North Island. In December 1839 he was warmly welcomed at Pūtiki for a six-day visit. The people had been introduced to Christianity in 1836 or 1838 by lay-reader Wiremu Eruera Te Tauri, a rangatira of Ngāti Tūwharetoa hapū Ngāti Te Rangi-ita who married Ripeka, the daughter of Pūtiki chief Te Mawae and Ripeka. Williams noted that ‘many Whanganui Māori were involved in Christian practices, had embraced literacy, and were keen to acquire books.’ Māori worshipped from a small raupō whare at Pūtiki, and Williams promised to send them a permanent missionary. Pūtiki Mission Station Williams directed the establishment of a mission station at a site offered by Pūtiki rangatira, adjacent to Pūtiki pā. Reverend John Mason was appointed the first missionary in June 1840, and built the first permanent church, a brick building opened in 1842. This same year saw the first burial in the associated urupā. Sadly, Mason was the second person to be interred in the urupā after he drowned in January 1843. A few months later, his replacement Reverend Richard Taylor arrived, and remained attached to the Pūtiki mission until his death in 1873; his son Basil took over leadership of the mission in 1860. Richard Taylor is recognised as one of New Zealand’s significant early missionaries, and he and his family made a great contribution to the Whanganui district. Richard Taylor oversaw the formal gifting of the mission station land to the Church of England in February 1843. The deed of gift was signed by Pūtiki rangatira Hori Kingi Te Anaua, Te Mawae and Hoani Wiremu Hipango. Taylor replaced Mason’s raupō whare with a new mission house (replaced again in 1870), and built a small hospital, a school and a school-master’s house nearby. He arranged construction of the mission station’s second (1844) and third (1857) churches, after the first two were damaged by earthquakes. The fourth church, opened on Christmas Day 1887, was built under the leadership of Reverend Alfred O. Williams, grandson of mission station founder Henry Williams. The Williams family’s strong association with Pūtiki continued when Alfred Williams’ son, Canon Wilfrid G. Williams, succeeded his father as missionary in 1913. Reverend Samuel Williams (Henry William’s son) funded the second mission school. St Paul’s Memorial Church The fourth church was a match-lined timber construction, located where the urupā extends today. In 1929 the parish decided that a new church was needed, and they set about fundraising for a building that would ‘long stand as a worthy monument to the work and influence of those founders of Christianity in the Whanganui District … as a striking example of the high ideals of the Māori race, expressed in their ancient arts and crafts, which have now found their fruition in the Gospel of Christ.’ Canon Wilfrid G. Williams, by then Superintendent of the Māori Mission, was a major driver and supporter of the project. Many people with connections to the mission’s history donated, including a substantial contribution of £750 from the H. and W. Williams Memorial Trust. The strength of feeling behind the financial donations was matched by the efforts of those who offered physical contributions to the building’s interior furnishings and liturgical equipment. Design and Construction While no original plans for St Paul’s Memorial Church have been discovered, it can be inferred that local builder Arthur J. Cutler based the church on a design from the offices of Frederick de Jersey Clere’s firm Clere & Clere. Eminent ecclesiastical architect Clere had, since 1883, been the Diocesan Architect for the Anglican Church, populating central New Zealand with his often-timber Gothic Revival churches. Just prior to the St Paul’s Memorial Church commission, Arthur Cutler had built the Clere & Clere-designed St Mary’s Church at Maxwell, just north of Whanganui. The two churches share design similarities, including identical windows, although Cutler added a square tower to St Paul’s Memorial Church, more reminiscent of the Norman churches of his English homeland. The foundation stone was laid by the Right Reverend Frederick Augustus Bennett (1871-1950), the first Bishop of Aotearoa and New Zealand’s first Māori bishop, on 23 February 1936. Bennett’s connection to the mission station dated back to 1892, when he resided at the mission house and two years later built the Pūtiki Mission School. Construction of the church was completed around August 1936, after which work on the interior decorations began. Toi Māori While the exterior of the building conformed to the typical appearance of European churches, special plans were afoot for the interior decoration. Sir Apirana Ngata (Ngāti Porou), the eminent Māori leader, politician and scholar, believed that the recovery of traditional Māori forms of decorative art – Toi Māori – would play an important part in Māori social and economic revival. During the 1920s Ngata was involved in the construction of decorated wharenui (meeting houses) at marae nationwide and he directed the interior decoration at St Mary’s, a highly ornamented Māori Anglican war memorial church commemorating Ngāti Porou troops at Tikitiki (Category 1, List. No. 3306, opened 1926). In 1927 he formalised this cultural support by opening the School of Māori Arts and Crafts at Rotorua. Ngata had had difficulty finding tohunga whakairo (master carvers) to work on St Mary’s, and noted the near-demise of tukutuku (ornamental lattice-work) in some regions. To arrest the loss of traditional practices, the school trained Māori artists and instructors in customary art and architecture by working directly on Māori buildings. After the school closed in 1938 the trainees and instructors continued to work privately; by the late 1950s the school and its alumni had completed 42 projects, achieving Ngata’s goal by spreading their knowledge through the communities they worked in. Pineamine (Pine) Taiapa (Ngāti Porou), one of the school’s first students, became one of its principal teachers – training approximately 34 whakairo (carving) students, two kōwhaiwhai (painted scrollwork) students, two kākaho (toetoe stem) students and over 100 tukutuku students by the late 1940s. While the school operated, Ngata decided what projects it would work on, the general plan of each new building, and the styles of tukutuku and whakairo to be used. As well as meeting houses and marae dining halls, the school worked on six whare karakia (churches). Ngata was prominent in the Anglican Church, and was instrumental in getting the Māori Anglican Bishopric established. Through these connections he became aware of the planned new church at Pūtiki and proposed that his school should be commissioned. It is considered that he personally designed the interior decorative scheme of St Paul’s Memorial Church. The team of artisans used the old mission school building (demolished in late 1937) as their workshop. The whakairo carvers were directed by Pine Taiapa, and included Hoani (John) Metekingi from Pūtiki, who carved the beautiful memorial font and baptistery canopy. The kōwhaiwhai was painted by Oriwha Tahupotiki (Edward Oliver) Haddon, a talented artist, Methodist missionary, pharmacist and broadcaster who had been trained in traditional knowledge by Tohu Kakahi of Parihaka; he was assisted at St Paul’s Memorial Church by Jack Kingi. Mr Tawhai Takoko supervised the kākaho work. Ngata directed the tukutuku and tāniko (fine finger weaving) work, carried out by women from Pūtiki (some who trained in Wellington and brought the knowledge home), Wellington and the East Coast; Lady Ngata contributed two panels of whariki work. Ngata furthered the art of tukutuku at St Paul’s Memorial Church by incorporating designs from other traditional art forms, such as tāniko weaving, to stimulate interest in that art form. In 1939, Maxwell Smart, Director of the Whanganui Regional Museum, wrote that ‘…so enthused were they by the revival of carving in Whanganui, that several young Maori residents of Putiki have become quite skilled in the work and have since adopted it as their permanent occupation.’ The total cost of the church was just over £2520. Many donations were made in memory of those who had worked for, worshipped in and supported the Pūtiki mission since its earliest days. These took form in a wealth of memorial furnishings, including a carved entrance porch, baptistery canopy and font, pulpit, lectern, altar, organ screen, choir stalls, altar rails, memorial windows. Other contributions were vestments and fair linen made by parishioners and supporters. Just prior to its completion, Ngata said ‘[St Paul’s Memorial Church] will be the most beautiful example of the application of Maori art to church decoration in the country.’ Consecration The church was consecrated with great ceremony on Sunday 5 December 1937. The service was led by the Right Reverend H. St Barbe Holland (the Bishop of Wellington), and Right Reverend Bennett, the Bishop of Aotearoa; attendees included many representatives of families and clergy with long-standing connections to the mission station, dignitaries including Sir Apirana and Lady Ngata, and those involved in its construction. Loud-speakers outside ensured that those beyond the 150 invited to sit inside could follow the proceedings. Each of the special memorial furnishings was consecrated by the Bishop of Aotearoa before the church itself was pronounced consecrated. The service crested as Hoani Metekingi carved the Cross of Consecration on the altar while the congregation sang the hymn ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’. Those commemorated by the furnishings were paid tribute in the Bishop of Wellington’s sermon, where he spoke of the unity between Pākehā and Māori that the church building symbolised. Social, cultural and spiritual importance Over the years, St Paul’s Memorial Church has been visited by many thousands of people, as the collection of over 15 visitor books, and features in many New Zealand guidebooks, attest. The Governor-General Lord Galway was one of the first dignitaries to visit, on 21 December 1937. Since then many more Governors-General have appreciated the church in person. Royalty, including HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and HRH Prince Edward, have also visited. This is on top of the thousands of parishioners who have worshipped, and celebrated weddings, christenings and the lives of those who have passed away, within the church building. Pūtiki Parish Hall On 25 October 1953 a new church hall was dedicated during the celebrations of the 113th anniversary of the Pūtiki Mission. Built adjacent to St Paul’s Memorial Church, the hall provided additional space for the parish’s social, spiritual and cultural activities, and reflected Reverend (later Sir) Kingi Ihaka’s aim to extend the church’s mission to younger people. As well as being the space for entertainment associated with church activities, for decades it housed the Sunday School and the local kindergarten; it was also the practice room of the Pūtiki Māori Club. A venue for public meetings (including the regular meetings of the Putiki Township Council), it was also the local polling booth for elections for many years. A kitchen was added to the hall in 1962. In 1972 the interior decoration of the hall was led by artist Cliff Whiting (Te Whanau-a-Apanui), who was then the Whanganui district education adviser on Māori arts and crafts. Dr Whiting became highly esteemed for his art and contribution to education and conserving and extending New Zealand’s cultural heritage, and was awarded the Order of New Zealand in 1998. An expert in traditional Toi Māori, Whiting also explored the use of modern materials to further these art forms. His work in the church hall included tukutuku, kākaho, and a modern interpretation of kōwhaiwhai. This project was his first experiment with using hardboard for the backing and horizontal laths of tukutuku panels, a response to new materials and the realities of the social situations confronting marae. It was also among his early explorations of contemporary stylisation of kōwhaiwhai, brought to prominence on a large scale in a mural format, which would become a feature of some of his most celebrated art works. At the hall’s dedication, Rangi Pohika said ‘That modern decoration is not seen anywhere among other tribes, and so through the creative mind of the designer, the Whanganui people should take pride of being the first.’ The community took part in the decoration, and the opportunity for new generations of Whanganui Māori to learn these traditional arts provided continuity with Ngata’s work in 1937. This social empowerment and fostering of artistic talent was very important to Whiting throughout his life. The decoration of the Pūtiki Parish Hall was one of the earliest of his many marae community art projects. Conservation The recent conservation of St Paul’s Memorial Church has continued that opportunity to extend knowledge of Toi Māori. Since 2014 the building has been insulated, rewired and made safe with new fire protection and heating systems; decramastic roof tiles (added in 1978) were removed and the original roofing iron removed and replaced. Accessibility was improved with a new entrance ramp that incorporated historic stones from previous church buildings. Attention then turned to the interior decoration, with Dean Whiting (Cliff’s son) and Jim Schuster guiding Whanganui Te Wānanga o Aotearoa tutors and students on conservation of the tukutuku panels. Conservation continues with a focus on the tāniko and kōwhaiwhai. Memorials Prayer desk – commemorating Reverend Arona Te Hana, first Māori missionary-in-charge 1876-1882 presented by Lord and Lady Bledisloe, in association with Mrs Hoani Makimerini, a relative of Te Hana. Copy of oil painting of 1857 church by George Sherriff. The original painting, presented by the Sherriff family, is cared for by the Sarjeant Gallery. Illuminated Anzac Memorial Cross – in memory of the district’s WW1 and WW2 dead. Made by Reverend W.S. Darby; unveiled on 22 December 1963. Carved arch in entrance porch – commemorating Wiremu Eruera Te Tauri, who introduced Christianity to Whanganui Maori; gift of Sir George Shirtcliffe of Wellington. Carved baptistery canopy – commemorating Reverend Henry Williams, founder of the Pūtiki Mission Station, presented by his granddaughters Mrs A. Russell and Miss Hilda Williams; designed by A.J. Cutler. Baptismal font and copper jug - gift of Mrs Heeni Scott and Mrs Ani Katene in memory of Miss Mangu Tahana, soloist of the Pūtiki Choir; carved by Hoani Metekingi. Pulpit – commemorating Reverend Richard Taylor, missionary 1843-1869, his son Reverend Basil Taylor, missionary 1869-1876, and their wives, donated by members of the Taylor family. The tāniko panels were made by Ani Katene, Maiangi Marumaru, Maori Bailey, and Ruby Whakarau of Pūtiki; Lady Ngata is said to have contributed two panels of whariki work, woven in silk tapestry fibre, to the rear of the pulpit. Pulpit lectern – in memory of Mr White, a lay reader during the 1950s. Lectern (freestanding) – commemorating Rev. Alfred O. and Mrs Williams, missionary 1885-1920; gift of their sons and daughter. Choir stalls – commemorating Archdeacon Samuel Williams, ‘maintainer of the second Pūtiki Mission School, and the founder of the H. and W. Williams Memorial Trust’; given by the Williams’ family. Organ screen – commemorating Reverend T.H. Katene, assistant missionary 1912-1918, gift of his wife, Mrs Ani Katene of Pūtiki, who wove the tukutuku panels. Altar rails – commemorating Reverend John Mason, first missionary to Pūtiki 1840-1843, presented by Mrs John Martin of Martinborough. Altar – in memory of Henry D. Bates, ‘a pupil of the first Mission School and generous supporter of the Māori work’, presented by Mrs H.D. Bates. Tukutuku panels on altar ‘Kainga – moku-inumia’ ‘are a contraction of that portion of the Prayer of Consecration at Holy Communion, meaning “eat and drink this in remembrance of me”’. Credence table – in memory of Reverend Thomas Grace (missionary from 1882-1885), gift of the Bishop of Wellington, Right Reverend H. St Barbe Holland; carved by a carver arranged by Sir Apirana Ngata with inset tāniko panel by Mrs Eruini of Maketu. ‘Bishop’s Chair’ - carved by and gift of Mrs A.E. Barton in memory of her mother Laura Harper (née Taylor, Richard Taylor’s daughter). Ceremonial cross – in memory of Wiremu Te Tauri (d.1959), grandson of Wiremu Eruera Te Tauri. Wrought iron flower stands – in memory of Mr and Mrs Fisher, supporters of the church. Stained glass memorial window - to Rev. A.O. and Mrs Williams, unveiled 1946; work of D. Marion Grant of London. One of only two known examples of her work in New Zealand. Shows the robes of Christ embroidered with tāniko design and the inscription ‘Ko Ihu Karaiti [Jesus Christ]’, which echoes that on the tukutuku panels above the altar’. Stained glass window - in memory of Mrs Heeni Scott and Mrs Ani Katene, sisters who worked for the church; installed in 1957 and made by Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd. Stone-cut window - commemorating the Pūtiki Mission School (NB the centenary dates on the window are incorrect). Installed in 1978 and made by Wanganui Glass. Based on the Holman Hunt Painting ‘The Light of the World’. ‘A print of this painting used to hang in the Mission School from the late 19th century until the school closed. The pupils were often asked to write a story about it.’ Stone-cut window – in memory of Nancy Donald, a staunch parishioner and member of the St Paul’s Ladies’ Guild; gifted by her sons in the early 1990s and made by Wanganui Glass.
Current Description The area of Whanganui known as Pūtiki now extends along the southern bank of the Whanganui River on both sides of State Highway 3. Te Anaua Street extends from Pūtiki Drive, not far from the roundabout intersection with State Highway 3. The steeple and belfry of the church building can be seen from State Highway 3 when travelling north, just before the Cobham Bridge. St Paul’s Memorial Church sits within the Pūtiki mission station, south of Pūtiki Marae. This marae, with the wharenui (meeting house) Te Paku o Te Rangi, denotes the traditional heart of the Pūtiki settlement and is located on the riverbank. The mission station lands are now in grazing for horses, with the church, hall, and urupā sitting amongst swathes of tall grass. The urupā (1842- ), containing the graves of missionaries, parishioners and Pūtiki tangata whenua, covers a slight rise between the church and the marae. The hall is to the south of the church at 6 Te Anaua Street; the vicarage (built 1932) is on the hall’s southern side. Entry to the church grounds is gained through the lych-gate, set within a low concrete block boundary wall along Te Anaua Street. Donated by the Wanganui South Rotary Club in 1971, this structure, timber on a block-work base, is a replica of the 1958 lych-gate at St Mary’s, Upokongaro. The form of the timber-framed, plastered church building is centred around a single-gabled nave, with a polygonal chancel at the east, and the tower, porch/foyer and vestry forming a transept at the western end. The framing, flooring and joinery are of heart rimu. The design of the lych-gate is echoed in the entrance porch to the church building (built 1979). This is attached to the southwestern side of the nave, under the tower. Stones from the previous church buildings are set into the pathway; a stone from Richard Taylor’s farmhouse also lies under the path at the church door. The square tower is topped with four finials surrounding an open timber belfry containing the bell, made in 1845 by C & G Mears of London, that has been used since the second Pūtiki mission church. Above this, a pointed octagonal spire, topped with a cross, is clad in tiles; the church building is roofed in corrugated galvanised iron. The marble foundation stone noting Arthur J. Cutler’s role in the design and construction of the building, and the unveiling of the stone by the Bishop of Aotearoa on 23 February 1936, is set into the tower’s southern base. Directly inside the front door is the foyer, match-lined with vertical tongue and groove boards. To the left of the door sits the memorial carved prayer desk gifted by Lord and Lady Bledisloe. Next to this is the access door to the belfry. The wall opposite the entrance door is hung with memorials, pictures and plaques, including a framed illuminated cross unveiled by Governor-General Sir Bernard Fergusson on 22 December 1963 in memory of Māori and Europeans from the district who were killed in both world wars, a copy of the land documents for the mission station, a photo and plaque commemorating Prince Edward’s visit to the church in 1982, a memorial plaque to Te Teira and Henare Metekingi, killed in WW1, and a copy of the painting of the third mission station church, by George Sherriff. To the right of the front door is the main entrance to the nave: two rimu doors with six-light clear panes sit within a carved surround, sheltered by a canopy decorated with carvings and painted kōwhaiwhai and lined with kākaho. The memorial canopy is offset in the manner of a whakamahau (traditional entrance porch to a wharenui). The framed list of original memorials, prepared for the opening of the church, hangs to the right of the doorway. Inside the nave the warm richness of the interior decoration is dazzling, simultaneously busy and calming. The first impression is of glowing kākaho and timber, offset by delicate kōwhaiwhai painting in white, red and black, and a wealth of geometric patterned tukutuku panels lining the upper walls, punctuated by intricately carved dark tōtara flashing with inset pāua shell. Kākaho lines the ceiling and gable ends, between rafters, roof trusses and a ridgepole painted with kōwhaiwhai designs representing Whanganui bush flora. Kōwhaiwhai also decorates the cornice of kaho paetara that sits above and between some of the tukutuku panels, and above each window. Unobtrusive steel tie-rods brace the structure at ceiling height. Two tall, narrow windows with triangular heads are set into each wall of the nave; these each have two four-light casements glazed with alternating amber and clear glass, topped with the casement containing the triangular light. A carved dado rail below window level separates the tukutuku panelling from vertical timber panelling below. The floor, originally covered with traditional whāriki, is now partially carpeted. In the centre of the western wall of the nave, a carved and painted memorial canopy sits over the baptistery, containing a carved memorial font with copper basin and matching jug. Above this is a bank of four amber and clear glass windows – narrow with triangular heads to resemble Gothic-style lancet windows. The entrance door to the south, and vestry door opposite it to the north, are framed by carved door surrounds. The vestry, match-lined to mirror the entrance foyer, contains storage and a bench with a basin. A door in the vestry’s western wall leads to the outside. Looking eastwards through the nave, the aisle leads through rows of plain timber pews to the junction with the chancel. The carved chancel arch echoes the traditional front of a wharenui, with maihi (bargeboards) resting on amo (supports), with the koruru figure at the apex extended downwards below a cross-piece, to evoke the crucifixion. The magnificent octagonal memorial pulpit, carved and inset with six panels of intricate tāniko weaving in the Tukemata, Aramoana, Waewaepukeko, Waharua and Whakaruakopito patterns, rests on a base of carved figureheads at the north side of the chancel arch. Opposite it at the south of the arch is the memorial lectern, also intricately carved and inset with a tukutuku panel of the Pātikitiki pattern. Beyond the chancel arch, memorial choir stalls with carved pew ends flank the aisle; the organ is inset by the southern wall, surrounded by a memorial screen of tukutuku panels and whakairo. The current organ is a replacement of the one originally gifted by Mr M. Murch in 1937. Up another step, carved memorial altar rails demarcate the sanctuary. The carved uprights framing the tukutuku wall panels are all of Whanganui design. The memorial altar sits agains a backdrop of tukutuku panels framed by whakairo on the east wall; these panels were designed by Ngata and presented to the church by the Ngāti Poneke women who made them. The central two feature the words ‘Ko Ihu Karaiti’, a transliteration of ‘Jesus Christ’. On either side the walls begin to angle round; above this the planes of the polygonal roof see the kōwhaiwhai rafters strikingly converge. The altar, carved and inset with tukutuku, has the words ‘Kainga Moku Inumia (‘eat and drink this in remembrance of me’)’ woven into the front panels. Four memorial windows are set into the angled chancel walls; the easternmost are stained glass, next to these are sandblasted windows commemorating the Mission School and dedicated parishioner Nancy Donald. Mrs Hera Scott is said to have taken a leading role in the weaving of the church’s tukutuku. The panels feature many pan-tribal designs, recognisable to iwi around New Zealand, including Waewae-kurī ‘Dog’s paws’; Armpit pattern; Roimata-toroa ‘Albatross tears’; Whakarua Kōpito ‘Navel pattern’; Niho Taniwha ‘Taniwha Tooth pattern’; Single Tooth pattern; Poutama ‘Stairway to the Heavens pattern’; Pātikitiki ‘Flounder pattern’; Takitoru; Waharua; Kaokao; Purapura Whetu ‘Stars’; and Tāpaki-rango/papaki-rango ‘Fly-swatter pattern’. There is also Whanganui a Mūmū pattern, a local design combining ‘albatross tears’ and ‘stars’ patterns to represent a chequerboard. The carving style is pan-tribal. The kōrero of the whakairo requires further research, however the figures (possibly representing ancestors or biblical figures) feature the characteristic three fingers of the ancestor Turi, captain of the Aotea waka. The dado rail is carved with the pattern traditionally used on the side of waka to represent speed; in the context of a church this pattern evokes ‘speed towards God.’ Other known patterns are Fern Frond (on the end of the choir stalls), Kaka Beak (on the supports of the baptistery), and Backbone of a Fish (on the back wall of the baptistery). Pūtiki Parish Hall The hall is single-gabled, timber-framed and clad in fibrolite. A porch shelters the entrance, accessed up steps and a ramp. Central double doors, flanked by small leadlight windows, open into the main room. A kitchen with servery hatch is opposite the entrance; toilet facilities are on either side of this. Four casement windows are spaced evenly down each wall of the main room. These are bordered by kōwhaiwhai; tukutuku panels of the Pātikitiki, Poutama and Niho Taniwha patterns sit between each window. Kākaho lining extends between the windows and ceiling; vertical timber tongue and groove clads the lower part of the wall. Kōwhaiwhai patterns include: Pikopiko – the new shoots of the pītau fern (on left and right sides of the front windows); Mango-Pāra or Ururoa, a shark (on the ridge-pole); and a new and contemporary design by Cliff Whiting decorates the back wall and servery hatch. The contemporary kōwhaiwhai mural design is based on traditional knowledge passed on from kaumātua, who told Whiting that the whakataukī ‘Me whakatupu ki te hua o te rengarenga, me whakapakari ki te hua o te kawariki’ (Raise the people on the fruit of the rengarenga, strengthen them with the fruit of the kawariki) referred to foods used in times of hardship. Contextual analysis The first missionaries to New Zealand, the CMS, arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1814. By 1840 there were over 50 mission stations in New Zealand; eleven of these were run by the CMS. While utilising traditional Māori whare at first, the early missionaries were keen to build European-style churches; the CMS particularly favoured neo-Gothic architecture. This significantly influenced Māori builders, and between 1830s-1860s there was a wave of church-building that blended traditional Māori architectural elements of the whare (a row of central ridge supports; Toi Māori decoration) with the European structure (steeper roofs, windows and higher walls) that allowed larger groups of people to congregate inside. CMS missionaries encouraged Māori to integrate their culture within a Christian framework, but traditional whakairo rākau (carved ancestral figures) were omitted from these churches as they did not align with Christian principles. A notable exception to this was in the Whanganui district, where Richard Taylor encouraged highly ornamented churches, including carved human imagery. This is credited to his sophisticated awareness ‘that Māori did not regard ancestral images…as idols.’ This period of architectural fusion was relatively short-lived, as the liturgical necessity of a central aisle focusing attention on the altar did not work with the whare’s characteristic central ridge supports; Bishop Selwyn also discouraged the Māori embellishment of church interiors during his episcopate. Western ecclesiastical architecture became the enduring model for whare karakia (prayer houses), with some exceptions in Rotorua where some Catholic churches incorporated Toi Māori ‘as a way of engaging with the local community.’ The inter-war period of the twentieth century saw a ‘renaissance’ of buildings built by Māori, for Māori. A major Māori church-building programme was started by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana in the 1920s. The characteristic Rātana churches employed elements of Romanesque and Spanish Mission architectural styles, and although distinctively Māori churches, do not feature Toi Māori decoration. By the 1920s attitudes towards the depiction of ancestral gods and tūpuna figures in churches had changed, and Māori embellishment was returning. St Faith’s (Anglican) at Ōhinemutu (1914; List No. 9705) is an early twentieth century example of a highly decorated Māori church interior, with connections to St Paul’s Memorial Church through Reverend F.A. Bennett. The pulpit, which is very similar to that in St Paul’s Memorial Church and also St Mary’s at Tikitiki, was a particular project of Bennett’s. Tokotoro Tapu at Manutuke (List No. 7477), rebuilt in 1913 after a fire, recreated the carved panels that had been a prized feature of its interior since the 1840s. St Paul’s Memorial Church is linked with the churches associated with Sir Apirana Ngata and his School of Māori Arts and Crafts. St Paul’s Memorial Church was his third church commission, after St Mary’s in 1926 and some work on St Faith’s in 1927. Post World War Two the school’s artists also worked on the Ōtākou Methodist Church in Otago (1948 [church dedicated in 1941]; List No. 5177), the restoration of Rangiātea Church at Ōtaki (1950) and the chapel at Hukarere Girls’ School , Hawke’s Bay (1953). With the exception of the Ōtākou Church with its exterior concrete-castings of whakairo carvings and offset entrance, the familiar Western form of these buildings’ exteriors does not hint at the profusion of Māori customary art inside. St Paul’s Memorial Church is among the country’s most highly-ornamented Māori church interiors, particularly special for its role in fostering Māori customary art and culture.
Completion Date
2nd February 2019
Report Written By
Blyss Wagstaff
Information Sources
Dominion
Dominion, 16 Jul 1915, p. 9.
Journal of the Polynesian Society
Journal of the Polynesian Society
DLA Architects Limited, Pettigrew and Whiting, 2011
DLA Architects Limited, Wendy Pettigrew and Dean Whiting, Conservation report for St Paul’s Memorial Church and Church Hall – Putiki, DLA Architects Limited, Whanganui, May 2011
St Paul’s Anglican Memorial Church, 1977?
St Paul’s Anglican Memorial Church, Putiki Wanganui New Zealand, Meteor Printers, no date [probably 1977], unpaginated
Smart, 1939
Maxwell Smart, ‘The new church. Concept of artistry. Unique decorations. Ancient crafts revived’, 1939, Whanganui Regional Museum
Report Written By
A fully referenced New Zealand Heritage List report is available on request from the Central Region Office of Heritage New Zealand. Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice.
Current Usages
Uses: Commemoration
Specific Usage: Memorial building (hall, museum, church, school, library etc)
Uses: Maori
Specific Usage: Whare karakia
Uses: Religion
Specific Usage: Church
Uses: Religion
Specific Usage: Church Hall/Sunday School
Uses: Religion
Specific Usage: Lych Gate
Themes
Of Significance to Maori