THE WAIRAU MONUMENT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 31, 13 March 1866, Page 3

THE WAIRAU MONUMENT.

The Provinces of Nelson and Marlborough are greatly indebted to Mr. F. Jollie, for causing the General Government *to take the erection of this monument out of the hands of tho Government of Nelson, which for seven years had £300 in the publio chest, handed over to it for the purpose of erecting a monument to commemorate the massacre of our unfortunate countrymen twenty-two years ago, and who never took a single step to carry it into effect. The General Government found Mr. F. Wakefield, n brother of the lamented Captain Arthur Wakefield, ono of the principal victims, a willing instrument to fulfil its wishes, and the monument is now erected under circumstances which must be highly gratifying to all who feel an interest in the fate of the unfortunate men who fell in the first bloody fray that occurred between the colonists and the natives of theso islands. Tho monument is a four-sided pyramid, in solid brick-work, faced with cement, ten feet square at the base, and nine feet and a-half high, and stands on a raised dais. The pyramid has a stone coping at the top, on which is erected a cross three feet six inches high. A slab is inserted in the pyramid, on which is engraved : — Sacked to thi Mihoby ov TWENTY-TWO ENGLISHMEN, ■Who were murdered by the Natives of New Zealand on the 7th June, 1843 : Henry Augustus Thompson, Captain Arthur Wakefleld, Captain Richard England, George Bycrofl Richardson, W. D. Patchett, James Howard, John BylTanui Cotterell, Christopher Malm, James Cotter, William Gardiner, Edward Stokes, Eli Cropper, William Northam, Henry Bumforth, Thorns* Tyrrell, laaao Bmitn, Thomas Fay, William Clensey, James M'Qregor, John Brooks, John Barton, Thomas Batcliffe. The brick work of the monument was executed by Mr. Dakey, of Blenheim, and the stone work was frepared by Messrs. Brown and Burnett, of Nelson, t is ereoted on the spur of the hill at the entrance of the Tua-Marina Valley, and on the spot where most of the bodies of the murdered men were buried. The site has a most commanding view over the whole of the Wairau Plain, and may be Been from the south entrance of Cook Strait. On the monument being completed, a public meeting was convened on the spot, by the Superintendent of Marlborough, on Friday last, to celebrate its inauguration. This meeting was well attended, and it was resolved to build a church and school-house at the mouth of the Tua-Marina Valley, where the massacre took place, and in this manner, also, commemorate the darkest scene in New Zealmncl Iximtory. It £a j>ropos«cL to V&1A« & mum. of £500 tor thxt object, jB6O of which was subscribed on the spot.