A FAMOUS FLAGSTAFF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21130, 12 March 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS FLAGSTAFF.

SOME DETAILS OF ITS STORY

BY LONEHANDER

Of the many tourists that visit Russell, I wonder how many of them hear the tales of bygone days as they were told to us seventy years ago? Probably there will not be many, for 1 here is no recognised yarn spinner nowadays such as there was when I was a boy.

1 grow up in the old settlement, and the Oracle in my time was a man who reached New Zealand in the historic brig Harriett, a vessel that was wrecked in Cook Strait in the early thirties, nearly a hundred years ago. Writers of history tell us that only the carpenter of the Harriett stayed in New Zealand, but that is a mistake, for the man I write of was no carpenter, but a first-class butcher, and, as such, was employed by the authorities in charge of the troops at To Wahapu. Charles Flowerday was his name, and his wife was a daughter of Captain Hansen, of the brig Active, that brought Marsden, tho famous missionary, to New Zealand in 1814, so there is little to wonder at in my old friend's knowing something of Old New Zealand. After the old man died his son automatically assumed tho position, and from what was told me by the late Judge Martin, who was greatly interested in searching for details of old-time events for which our early writers had no space, Flowerday junior was quite fit for tho job, and anything that came from that source was of value. I agreed with him. I was recently asked to tell what I knew concerning the Russell flagstaff. The staff that stands on Maiki Hill to-day is the sixth on that historic eminence, and each one has a story. Various Sites. The first was put up in 1840 and stood unmolested for four or five years, but on July 8, 1844, it came down, levelled by some of the Ngapuhi, headed by the chief Haratua. Why this was done is common knowledge, but where it stood is not generally known. According to the Oracle, the first staff to show the British flag on Maiki Hill was put up \there the trig station now stands. The second staff occupied the same position, and this also was cut down. By this time both sides were getting warm and things began to move. Again the staff went up, for the third time, but not- on the old spot. A new site was selected, and a guard composed of men selected by Waaka Neno was set to defend it, but Heke got it down nine days after the fall of the second one. The fourth to go up was a much heavier spar than its predecessors, and to trouble the Maori axes plates of iron were fastened lengthways at its' lower end. These precautions, however, could not save it. March 11, 1845, saw the staff again prostrate, this time with bloodshed. From that time until January, 1858, Maiki Hill remained unstaffed. Heke was a sick man for a considerable time before he died,'some time in 1850. Kawiti, another of the leading chiefs, died a few years later, and his son, Marsh Brown (as we knew him), became head of the tribe. Maihi Paraone Kawiti, according to the common belief, always had a friendly feeling for the mission people, and being a far-sighted man he was no doubt influenced by their advice to make friends with the pakeha.

A Happy Thought. Hence it came about that, after much talk among the tribes that had been against the Government, it was decided to re-erect the flagstaff. The next job was to find a suitable spar, and that was no easy job even in those days of 1857. However, after much searching, a spar was found at Waikarc, and after being squared where it fell it was towed down to Russell and landed a few yards' in a southerly direction from where the old cannon now stands. This is approximately the centre of Russell's waterfront and the place where all public meetings were long ago held. The topmast and yard and other fittings for the staff were made on the same spot. When the day came for the spar to lie taken up the hill there were thousands of Maoris assembled in Russell, and the job of taking ft up was nothing to the crowd that was there to handle it. Most writers on this subject seem to agree that the spar was dragged, but this was not so. It was carried 011 bearers. The fust halt was made at the north end of the beach, near two ti trees (cabbage trees), which are probably there now. The next step took the spar 011 to a level place on the hill side of the little creek at the beach end. Ho far all had been plain sailing, but it was 1 lie pinch up the hill to where Captain Bateman's house stood that was the worst part of the journey. However, that was soon safely got over, and as the rest of the way was fairly good the job was soon finished. I was too young at this time to have any recollection whatever of what was done, but my people were prominent in the affair and were paid for what they did. Thus, early in January, 1858, Maiki Hill again had a flagstaff and the Maori donors gave it the lengthy name of whakakotahitanga—meaning iii Maori " the making at one." Since then the pakeha and the Maori have lived peaceably together in the North.

Flagstaff number five stood for about thirteen years, when its weather-worn appearance called for a coat of paint and the harbourmaster's men got orders to see that it was attended to. This was a job that they had little liking for, and for five shillings they induced inc to take it on. It, was two days' work for me, and it cost my mother more than a pound to replace the clothes I ruined.

The Present Staff. After that, for quite a number of years I never saw the staff, but some time in the nineties I renewed my acquaintance with it. By this, time the staff was showing its age. The part that was in the ground was decayed and needed attention, and I had the job of seeing to it. Besides that, I reduced the topmast and yard both in length and diameter and again painted this well-known flagstaff.

F think that it was about a year later that a bush fire, backed by a fresh breeze, brought Maiki's fifth staff to tho ground, but not for long. What good timber was left, in the lower mast was dressed up in the semblance of a spar and again put up, making the sixth time that a staff had been erected on that well-known hill.

Some time in the early sixties there was a big Maori meeting at old Kororareka, and Marsh Brown, in a speech before tho Governor (Grey, I think it was), mentioned among other things that the Maoris alone had put the flagstaff up. He said, " We ourselves found the spar, the ropes and the money, and when wo had completed it wo handed it over to Governor Brown; after that we gave up a picco of land for the flag to lie upon." And that is about all that I know of tho Russell flagstaff, except that the cash paid for labour and material was £lO9 8s 3d.