Early History
Matakana forms part of a coastal land area which was settled and conquered a number of times over the centuries and prior to the arrival of Europeans by different iwi groups including Ngāi Tāhuhu, Ngāti Raupo, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Rongo, Te Kawerau ā Maki and the Marutūahu confederation and has a complex history. The Matakana River was named after the pā located at the river mouth and means glowering eyes. The town lies within the Mahurangi Purchase, a 100,000 acre coastal strip between Auckland and Te Arai, obtained by the Crown in April 1841. The purchase deed was signed by leaders of Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Maru and Ngāti Whanaunga, who had previously obtained the land by conquest.
Although some European settlers moved to area around Matakana River during the 1840s to take up opportunities for timber felling and milling, formal European settlement beside the river at Matakana and Sandspit, then known as Upper and Lower Matakana respectively, began in the early 1850s. John Long Heydin, who established the first timber mill at Matakana, purchased the Crown Grant for the Allotment 5 Parish of Matakana, which included the land the memorial was later erected on, in 1851 and crown land auctions of farms were held in 1853. The river formed an essential part of life for the early settlers as their link to Auckland for communication, travel and transport of goods such as furniture, building supplies and food into the settlement and export of produce such as firewood, timber and stock to the Auckland market. Matakana was one of a number of settlements established near water access in the area. Other settlements included Warkworth beside the Mahurangi River in 1854, and Leigh and Big Omaha from 1858 east of Matakana along the coast.
Over the following decades farming became established in the surrounding district as well as flax and timber mills. Matakana was well-located to serve as river access for these settlers as it was relatively inland compared to some other settlements. A wooden wharf was constructed at Matakana in 1879 and tracks to Matakana, and specifically the wharf, became formalised as roads through the late 1870s and 1880s. A junction formed at the south east corner of Allotment 5 where the roads east to Whangateau and Leigh, west to Warkworth and Sandspit, and north to Whangaripo met the road to the wharf. The wharf was a busy port with regular inward and outward vessels that supplied the community’s needs. Shops were soon opened in close proximity to the wharf and by 1914 a small town centre had developed near the junction with multiple shops, a saddler/bootmaker, a library, two churches, a public hall, a school, a post office, a hotel, a boarding house and a dairy factory.
Matakana in the First World War
With the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918), the Matakana community enthusiastically joined the rest of the country in supporting the war effort. The community raised money to donate to the effort through concerts and patriotic committees and 36 men from Matakana and the surrounding district served in the New Zealand armed forces. The wharf continued to be an important location for the community during these years as with boats still being the primary method of transport until around 1930, it was the departure point for the enlisted men and the place where news of the war, including reports of deaths of the local soldiers were received by those at home. Of the men who enlisted to serve from Matakana, thirteen died overseas and in New Zealand while in service.
Creation of Matakana War Memorial
To commemorate those deaths, the Matakana community came together again following the war to commission and raise funds for a war memorial. The use of war memorials to commemorate ordinary soldiers’ deaths began in Britain and Europe following the huge loss of life in the Crimean War before which most memorials only recognised higher classes, particularly the deaths of nobility. Settlers had brought the practice with them and early war memorials in New Zealand were erected in the first decades of the twentieth century to commemorate the New Zealand Wars and the South African War. The commission for Matakana’s war memorial was given to William Henry Feldon, a local sculptor who, after serving as a Captain during the war, actively sought commissions to create war memorials for communities around New Zealand. Based in Auckland, Feldon was one of only a small number of New Zealand based sculptors given war memorial commissions as most of the war memorials erected around the country, especially statue memorials, were purchased from Europe. This was due both to the cost of commissioning a sculpture and because it was often believed that only European artists had the talent to create sculptures that would convey the high ideals required.
Feldon sculpted the memorial for Matakana using Ōamaru stone, a soft sandstone from the South Island of New Zealand. A statue of King George V stood atop a block with ‘MATAKANA’ inscribed on the front which was in turn on top of a large plinth. As the commander of the war effort, King George was depicted wearing the military uniform dress of a Field Marshall complete with a cocked bicorn hat, tunic, medals, cloak, and boots. The King was holding a scroll, possibly representing the King’s 7 November 1919 proclamation of two minutes of silence commemorating those lives lost in the conflict, in his right hand and his sheathed sword in his left. Carved into the plinth was an inscription which read ‘This Monument Was Erected By Public Subscription As A Thanksgiving To Almighty God For Peace And Victory And In The Memory Of The Men Of This District Who Fell In The Great War 1914-1919’. The themes of peace and victory were prominent ideas used in First World War memorials of the period across the country. Like many contemporary memorials, the Matakana statue graphically represented imperial sentiments and a desire to be recognised as part of the British Empire reflecting the strong connection between New Zealand and Britain in the early twentieth century.
Below the inscription the names of the men who died were listed in order of their rank. The named men came from Matakana, Sandspit, Whangateau and Whangaripo. These men had died in a number of different conflicts including Gallipoli, Ypres, Palestine and the Somme, as well as men who had died from illnesses including measles in New Zealand and England. One of the names was added in 1921 following the soldier’s death in Auckland hospital from tuberculosis contracted while serving overseas. Like many others towns around New Zealand, the Matakana community chose to only include the names of the dead as the memorials were partly conceived ‘as surrogate tombstones that should pay primary tribute to the dead’ unlike in Australia where many memorials listed all the names of those who served.
The memorial was completed and erected in December 1919 on a small section of Allotment 5, land which the Campbell family had owned since 1901, at the south east corner of the wharf junction. Susan Campbell, who was described in her obituary as the Mother of Matakana, gave her permission for the monument to be placed on the family’s land overlooking the township and the wharf. Although news reports indicate that the Prime Minister was planned to unveil the memorial in January 1920, its official unveiling was held on 23 April 1920 by the Honourable Joseph Gordon Coates, Minister for Defence and Public Works. The First World War memorial was the tenth unveiled nationally and the first statue memorial erected to commemorate the conflict after the armistice. The event was well attended by the community and over the following years the memorial was the site of local ANZAC Day and Armistice Day commemorations for many years.
Use of the place after erection of monument
The wharf junction continued to be an important centre for Matakana in the years after the erection of the First World War Memorial. In 1929 the land around the memorial was leased to Thomas (Jack) Walden who built a garage on the land beside the monument and operated a car dealer from that location. When the garage burnt down in 1936, a new garage and dealership was built on the opposite side of Matakana Road while some smaller structures remained around the monument. The wharf was significantly damaged in 1938 in a major flood and was largely rebuilt on a concrete base. As part of the centenary celebrations planning, the council considered acquiring that portion of the Campbells land to create a public reserve with swimming baths and included the memorial and the wharf but the plans were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War and didn’t proceed. Unlike in some communities, no additions were made to the First World War Memorial to commemorate the lives lost between 1939 and 1945. This possibly reflects a decrease in the prominence of the statue in the township over time as well as the reduced isolation of Matakana associated with car transport. The Campbell family cleared the land around the memorial in the 1950s and gifted the land on which the memorial stands to the Council in 1955 after which it became part of the Matakana Wharf Reserve.
Maintenance of the statue has been inconsistent over the years. It became covered in mould and lichen with environmental damage causing erosion of the soft stone which was exacerbated by the plane of the stone not being ‘laid on the same plane as it was found in the ground’. The monument was also damaged by vandalism several times including a red paint bomb attack and in the late 1940s an attempt to topple the statue with a rope pulled by a car resulted in the decapitation of the statue. The head was soon reattached but on later occasions was again removed but recovered.
Relocation and restoration
By the early 2000s the monument was sometimes referred to as King George V statue, reflecting the reduced recognition of the monument’s war memorial connections. With an increasing population at Matakana, traffic was causing problems at the township and the council decided to improve the road by building a roundabout at the wharf junction. This necessitated the relocation of the statue and, despite some local opposition, the memorial was moved within the Wharf Reserve 50m south of its original location in 2006. A public toilet block, which had first been suggested in 2002, was subsequently erected beside the monument’s original location. The council created a new court of honour around the monument which was now sited in an open clearing fronting Matakana Road with an oblique view of the roundabout. The head of the statue was removed again in 2006 and in 2012 at which time it was lost. In 2013-2014, as part of the nationwide commemorations of the start of the First World, funding was granted by the Council and government for the creation of a new head for the statue and general maintenance of the statue. Ana Machado, a conservator, restored the statue and Steven Woodward sculpted a new head with an Admiral of the Fleet hat which was installed in April 2014. A bronze plaque with the original inscription was added and a second plaque to commemorate the Second World War was added on the south side. A rededication service with a large turnout was held after the new head was attached. In subsequent years interest in the memorial has increased and ANZAC services have been held regularly. The resurgence of interest and appreciation of the monument as a war memorial is part of a nationwide pattern beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the centenary of the First World War.
