January 18, 2017
Waireka battle site for new owner
The site of one of the first battles of the Taranaki Wars is up for sale.
The 152 hectare dairy farm at Omata overloking the southern fringe of New Plymouth was bought by pioneer settler Jesse Jury in 1847 and has remained within the family for 170 years.
But 75 year old Len Jury says his children don’t want to be farmers, and it’s time to sell.
On 28 March 1860 it became the site of the Battle of Waireka, when a column of volunteers and colonial troops marched along the beach to bring in settlers from Omata.
They were pinned down by Maori from Kaipopo Pa, and the troops retreated to New Plymouth, leaving the volunteers to be rescued by sailors from the HMS Niger.
Two Victoria Crosses and a New Zealand Military Cross were won in the action,
About 14 Europeans were killed or wounded and about 17 Maori killed, but both sides claimed victory.
Bayleys Taranaki rural salesperson Mark Monckton says even though lush grazing grass covered what were once battlefields, the trenches built by soldiers around Omata Camp nearby were still clearly visible in almost original condition.
Dennis Ngawhare from Nga Mahanga-a-Tairi, whose ancestors sold the Omata Block to Governor George Grey in 1847, told RNZ the hapu expected to be consulted if the farm was developed.
"We are very concerned about retaining the historic nature of these waahi tapu or these sacred sites, these ancestral sites. And part of that is Kaipopo Pa and the cemetery that is there and perhaps other sites on there too,” Dr Ngawhare says.
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