WHAREPOURI'S MARK.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 August 1927, Page 6

WHAREPOURI'S MARK.

relic of mokaxj invasion of WAIKABAPA. protection refused. > Mr R. J. Barton, of Masterton, who applied some months ago to the Scenery Preservation Board on behalf of the Whakataki 'Natives to have Whare■oouri’s Mark, on the Whakataki beach, protected, has received a reply from the board to the effect that the spot is not considered of sufficient historical interest to justify its protection at the present. Commenting on the board's action, Mr. Barton states that as the Public Works Department would soon bo puting the road through in the vicinity of the Mark, it was probable that the Bast Coast Maoris would endeavour to protect the place themselves. Wharepouri’s Mark is a sandstone pillar, originally about five feet high, standing on the legalised road line about two chains in from the seaboard, a mile north of Whakataki. In the year 1842 the missionary influence waj milking itself felt among the warlike Natives, and this Mark was erected in that year, signifying peace between the Mokau Natives, who were then in possession of Wellington, and had invaded, the Wairarapa, and the tribes on the East Coast, who had been driven by the Mokaus to Mahia to seek the protection of the Hawke's Bay tribes who were suitably armed to withstand invasion. The Mokaus found that they were not strong enough to hold the Wairarapa, and after frequent raids by the Hawke’s Bay tribes, who were anxious to restore the non-belli-gerent Wairarapa tribes to their original holdings, Wharepouri, one of the principal chieftains of the Mokaus, declared peace, and the stone was erected to mark the occasion. Mr. Barton remarked that the .board had recently protected several sites in Waikato which were not of real historical interest, and he felt that something should be done to preserve this interesting emblem of peace between the Natives of the East Coast of the North Island.