HISTORIC FITZROY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1932, Page 11

HISTORIC FITZROY

ONCE A FAMOUS LANDMARK MAORI EXPRESSION OF DERISION. WAITARA LAND DISPUTE A CAUSE. An historic landmark which existed in the Fitzroy district until some time in the mid-seventies, when it was destroyed by fire, is remembered by the older residents of the district. It was known as the Fitzroy pole and had .it been preserved would have, stood as an extremely interesting relic of the unsettled days when pakeha and Maori differed. Known by the Maoris as the Po-tutaki pole, it stood for many years near the junction of the present Devon Line and Smart Road. This great shaft of puriri was erected by the Puketapu natives in derision of . Mr. Commissioner Spain’s award which legalised the purchase by the New Zealand. Company of the land extending to and beyond Waitara. This award was upset by Governor in 1844 and the land to the east of Smart Road was handed back to the Maoris. The settlement was in con< seqeunce concentrated between Smart Road and Paritutu. '

The pole had two life size, figures carved on it, the one below depicting the pakeha in a most dejected and forlorn attitude, the one above representing the Maori triumphant, making a fearful grima.ee. and with arms erect in the attitude of striking, down tne pakeha.; Beyond the. pole the Maoris of that day said no foot of land should be sold or occupied by Europeans. That held good up to the .Waitara. war .and all the trouble that followed.

Unfortunately through an accident a gorse fire burnt the bane of the pole and it fell. . It, was eventually.chopped up for firewood by the old toll-gate keeper when the;-gate stood at the junction of Smart Rbad and Devon Line. The base of the pole is believed to be still, in the ground where the pole stood but it. has not been searched for. If located it-will be another valuable link with Taranaki’s past. ' . ■. : ■/.' L ■'