Help sought for memorial jetty

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 16

Help sought for memorial jetty

A jetty named Gallipoli at Rapaki is badly in need of repair, and the Maori people of the bay feel that someone should come to their aid to preserve the structure, which is not only a magnet for children and pleasureboats, but a First World War memorial.

The jetty was built to commemorate the five young Maoris who left the pa to fight on Gallipoli, one of them losing his life. The jetty, costing £4OO raised by the residents from concert parties and the like, was opened on September 23, 1916, and must have been one of New Zealand’s earliest “practical” war memorial?. Its construction was not without opposition. Some of the older women said that the jetty would lead to the drowning of children, but the way was cleared when one of the objectors, returning to Rapaki with the concert party, fell into the sea from the launch Matariki instead of springing on to the rocks that were the landing. Now, with its decking half gone, no hand-rails and some piles missing, the jetty, said Mr G. M. Couch, speaking for the Tribal Committee, must either be repaired or removed. “We don’t want to wait for a tragedy,” said Mr Couch. “Our young people swim from the jetty, and quite a few boats tie up to it/ We have up to 40 boats at Rapaki over summer weekends. The beach is one of the best in the harbour, wonderfully safe for children, and is becoming increasingly popular. “The Lyttelton Harbour Board condemned the jetty five years ago, saying it was beyond repair. We snoke recently to the board’s chairman, Mr F. I. Sutton, but he said repairs were not the board’s responsibility.

“But we feel the board has some responsibility. 1 The board must have given permission for the old steamer Wootton, then used as a houseboat, to be moored near the jetty. When she broke away in a storm in 1931, she crashed side-on into the jetty, damaging it. '

“We would like the wharf preserved as a memorial and for people to use, but we are a small community, with limited means. We have taken the question up with the Lyttelton Returned Services’ Association, and there is a possibility that we will get help from R.S.A. headquarters in Wellington. “Apart from the memorial aspect, we do feel the jetty would be an advantage to the increasing number of pleasure boats. We hope someone can help us. If we can’t get the jetty repaired, it should not be allowed to stand, because it is dangerous.”