FAMILIAR LANDMARK RESTORED

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14572, 16 January 1948, Page 2

FAMILIAR LANDMARK RESTORED

FORMER BEACON AT MAKETU

SIGNIFICANCE OF TWO WELL-KNOWN ROCKS

(Times Correspondent)

An old, familiar landmark which has been absent from its base at Maketu for the last few months, was re-erected recently. For more than 70 years a beacon made of cast iron and embedded in the submerged rock, known as Takaparore, (stone of the butterfish) has withstood time and tides until the overexuberance of youthful divers, who delighted in fancy dives from its precarious hoop-like top brought it toppling down.

The harbour was strangely bare without it especially at full tide when Takaparore and its twin rock Takaturua were covered by the sea to a depth of two or three feet. When Maketu was a busy port, the beacon standard was erected to guide l sailing ships and then the coastal vessels over the Kaituna bar on night tides. A system of port lights was arranged and nightly a lantern was hung on the Takaparore beacon. At one stage a port watchman was employed to guide vessels over the bar.

When the Kaituna silted up about 40 years ago 1 and a shallow mouth opened at Te Tumu, Maketu, as a shipping port was.doomed but the standard remained to mark the entrance to the old harbour. Then some 25 years later, the Kaituna river resumed its original course and the swift-flowing current scoured out the silt from the base of Takaparore and Takaturua rocks These two stones, famous in Arawa legend are now popular with young swimmers.

i- S youn §' children learn to dive off Takaturua rock into a basinlike pool that remains at low tide ihe next age group of children eager to try their strength and skill by swimming across the river learn to swim and dive on Takaparore rock in the centre of the river before they become proficient. Each generation of youngsters follows this pattern and learns to swim and dive around these old historic stones.