Moutoa Gardens

Moutoa Gardens, also known as Pakaitore, is a park in the city of Wanganui, New Zealand. Named after the Battle of Moutua Island in the Second Taranaki War, it contains a memorial to the battle inscribed "To the memory of the brave men who fell at Moutoa, 14 May 1864, in defence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism."^[1] It also contained a statue of John Ballance, organiser of a volunteer cavalry troop in Titokowaru's War and later Premier of New Zealand.

Historically, Pakaitore was a traditional fishing settlement for hundreds of years and later became a marketplace. The area was considered a sanctuary where all tribes were equal and the police could not enter. Between 1839 and 1848 the New Zealand Company purchased Whanganui lands on behalf of the crown from people and tribes who may have had little or no claim to it.^[2]

The park was occupied for 79 days in 1995 in protest over a Treaty of Waitangi claim, an action which split the town and the nation and garnered significant attention from police.^[3] Local iwi claim the site was the location of a pa and trading site, left to Māori in the 1848 sale of Wanganui. During the protest, the statue of Ballance was beheaded and is yet to be replaced.

References

1. ^ James Cowan (1956). The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume II: The Hauhau Wars, 1864–72, Chapter 3: THE BATTLE OF MOUTOA. R. E. Owen, Government Printer, Wellington. First published 1923. Reprinted without amendment 1956. Accessed 2007-06-12.
2. ^ http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/9507
3. ^ http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5922/5922_1.html

Coordinates: 39°55′54″S 175°03′24″E / 39.9318°S 175.0568°E / -39.9318; 175.0568