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Bastion Point
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Bastion Point
Bastion Point (Takaparawhau) is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitematā Harbour. The area is significant in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Māori against forced land alienation by the Crown. Takaparawhau is now the site of the private Ōrākei Marae, the public Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, and privately owned reserve land that is accessible to the public.
Māori originally named the eastern point of the area Kohimarama, meaning to collect the remnants / wood chips, and the western point was named Takaparawhau. Felton Mathew named the promontory South Head. Just off that point was Bastion Rock, which was levelled and is now the site of the Tamaki Yacht Club. Bastion Point became the common English name for the site encompassing both points. The nearby beach known as Waiparera in Māori became known as Kohimarama. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, call it Takaparawhau, which, along with Ōkahu Bay, form Whenua Rangatira, which is vested in Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the common use and benefit of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and citizens of Auckland, and is managed by the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board. The public land containing the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial and Fort Britomart tunnels is not owned by the hapū, who refer to it as Kohimarama, while Auckland Council now call it Takaparawhau.
The land was occupied by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and before the colonisation of New Zealand it was part of important lands for the hapū, overlooking rich fishing and farming areas. The surrounding land was purchased and confiscated by the New Zealand Government for public works and development over a period stretching from the 1840s into the 1950s.
On 20 March 1840, in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing the treaty, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner on the Auckland isthmus, made a strategic gift of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for the new capital. By 1859, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who sold a further 13,200 acres (5,342 hectares) to the Crown, had lost most of their remaining land through speculators. The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained. Within a century, this too was compulsorily acquired by the Crown (apart from a cemetery).
Apihai Te Kawau spoke publicly against land sales and in order to safeguard a small amount of land in Ōrākei for future generations, and Te Kawau obtained a Crown Grant in 1869. In 1873, the Native Land Court stated that "the land shall be inalienable". A reversal of this government position came with the Validation Of Invalid Land Sales Act 1894. In 1885, the New Zealand Government built a military outpost at Bastion Point, because of its commanding strategic position overlooking the Waitematā Harbour, known as Fort Bastion. The outpost was not built on Takaparawha Point, which had earlier been taken by the Government for the same purpose. In 1886, the Crown used the Public Works Act 1882 (46 Vict No 37) to take ownership of 13 acres (5.3 ha) of Bastion Point for this purpose of defence. From 1913 and 1928, the government bought most of the land that had been previously deemed inalienable. As Ranganui Walker states, this is by no means a simple case of willful dispossession: "In a long running battle to resist the state and save the land, there were eight actions in the Maori Land Court, four in the Supreme Court, two in the Court of Appeal, two in the Compensation Court, six appearances before Commissions or Committees of Inquiry, and fifteen Parliamentary Petitions. In the end the state prevailed".
In 1936, Ōrākei was proposed as a site for state housing by the First Labour Government, and in August a Māori delegation asked Prime Minister Savage that at least the marae on the flat foreshore where he had been ceremonially welcomed after his election should be retained by the tribe. Savage was 'somewhat fogged' by the situation and asked for reports, which were not completed when he sailed to Britain for the Coronation and Imperial Conference in 1937. The Labour state housing team John A. Lee and Frank Langstone decided that the 120 Māori living at Ōrākei were illegal squatters and had to be removed. The incensed Ōrākei Māori met Savage on his return from overseas, and he immediately reversed the decision, avoiding what could have been a political crisis. In November 1936, Lee had assured Walter Nash that the Māori would be removed without much difficulty; but they refused, and were supported by the Clergy Association, the Protestant churches, the Anglican Bishop, the Friends of Orakei and the New Zealand Observer. Robin Hyde wrote No More Dancing at Orakei. Lee obtained most of his land, but Langstone's (and the Cabinet's) decision; seen as obtaining Māori land as a park 'for white children' was reversed. Another motive for their proposal was to weaken Bill Endean's grip on Parnell, the only non-Labour seat in Auckland. Māori from the pā met Savages' body when it arrived back in Auckland in 1940.
In 1941, the Crown no longer needed Bastion Point for defence, it did not return the land to its traditional Māori owners but instead gifted it to the Auckland City Council for a reserve. (This was the last 60 acres (24.3 ha) of uncommitted land at Ōrākei that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei still hoped to get back.)
During World War II, three searchlights were housed in emplacements built at the foot of Bastion Point, and still exist today. Guns, searchlights, and an anti-submarine boom stretched to Torpedo Bay near North Head, were installed at the front of the Tamaki Yacht Club, and were later incorporated into the yacht club building.
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Bastion Point
Bastion Point (Takaparawhau) is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitematā Harbour. The area is significant in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Māori against forced land alienation by the Crown. Takaparawhau is now the site of the private Ōrākei Marae, the public Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, and privately owned reserve land that is accessible to the public.
Māori originally named the eastern point of the area Kohimarama, meaning to collect the remnants / wood chips, and the western point was named Takaparawhau. Felton Mathew named the promontory South Head. Just off that point was Bastion Rock, which was levelled and is now the site of the Tamaki Yacht Club. Bastion Point became the common English name for the site encompassing both points. The nearby beach known as Waiparera in Māori became known as Kohimarama. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, call it Takaparawhau, which, along with Ōkahu Bay, form Whenua Rangatira, which is vested in Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the common use and benefit of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and citizens of Auckland, and is managed by the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board. The public land containing the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial and Fort Britomart tunnels is not owned by the hapū, who refer to it as Kohimarama, while Auckland Council now call it Takaparawhau.
The land was occupied by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, and before the colonisation of New Zealand it was part of important lands for the hapū, overlooking rich fishing and farming areas. The surrounding land was purchased and confiscated by the New Zealand Government for public works and development over a period stretching from the 1840s into the 1950s.
On 20 March 1840, in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing the treaty, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner on the Auckland isthmus, made a strategic gift of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for the new capital. By 1859, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who sold a further 13,200 acres (5,342 hectares) to the Crown, had lost most of their remaining land through speculators. The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained. Within a century, this too was compulsorily acquired by the Crown (apart from a cemetery).
Apihai Te Kawau spoke publicly against land sales and in order to safeguard a small amount of land in Ōrākei for future generations, and Te Kawau obtained a Crown Grant in 1869. In 1873, the Native Land Court stated that "the land shall be inalienable". A reversal of this government position came with the Validation Of Invalid Land Sales Act 1894. In 1885, the New Zealand Government built a military outpost at Bastion Point, because of its commanding strategic position overlooking the Waitematā Harbour, known as Fort Bastion. The outpost was not built on Takaparawha Point, which had earlier been taken by the Government for the same purpose. In 1886, the Crown used the Public Works Act 1882 (46 Vict No 37) to take ownership of 13 acres (5.3 ha) of Bastion Point for this purpose of defence. From 1913 and 1928, the government bought most of the land that had been previously deemed inalienable. As Ranganui Walker states, this is by no means a simple case of willful dispossession: "In a long running battle to resist the state and save the land, there were eight actions in the Maori Land Court, four in the Supreme Court, two in the Court of Appeal, two in the Compensation Court, six appearances before Commissions or Committees of Inquiry, and fifteen Parliamentary Petitions. In the end the state prevailed".
In 1936, Ōrākei was proposed as a site for state housing by the First Labour Government, and in August a Māori delegation asked Prime Minister Savage that at least the marae on the flat foreshore where he had been ceremonially welcomed after his election should be retained by the tribe. Savage was 'somewhat fogged' by the situation and asked for reports, which were not completed when he sailed to Britain for the Coronation and Imperial Conference in 1937. The Labour state housing team John A. Lee and Frank Langstone decided that the 120 Māori living at Ōrākei were illegal squatters and had to be removed. The incensed Ōrākei Māori met Savage on his return from overseas, and he immediately reversed the decision, avoiding what could have been a political crisis. In November 1936, Lee had assured Walter Nash that the Māori would be removed without much difficulty; but they refused, and were supported by the Clergy Association, the Protestant churches, the Anglican Bishop, the Friends of Orakei and the New Zealand Observer. Robin Hyde wrote No More Dancing at Orakei. Lee obtained most of his land, but Langstone's (and the Cabinet's) decision; seen as obtaining Māori land as a park 'for white children' was reversed. Another motive for their proposal was to weaken Bill Endean's grip on Parnell, the only non-Labour seat in Auckland. Māori from the pā met Savages' body when it arrived back in Auckland in 1940.
In 1941, the Crown no longer needed Bastion Point for defence, it did not return the land to its traditional Māori owners but instead gifted it to the Auckland City Council for a reserve. (This was the last 60 acres (24.3 ha) of uncommitted land at Ōrākei that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei still hoped to get back.)
During World War II, three searchlights were housed in emplacements built at the foot of Bastion Point, and still exist today. Guns, searchlights, and an anti-submarine boom stretched to Torpedo Bay near North Head, were installed at the front of the Tamaki Yacht Club, and were later incorporated into the yacht club building.
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