A crowd of 2,000 people gathered in the Te Araroa Domain on Anzac Day 1928 for the unveiling of the Matakaoa District First World War memorial. This was a pink granite obelisk set on a concrete base and inscribed with an elaborately worded dedication and the names of four local men who had given their lives: Privates H. Aramakutu, H. Hauiti, R. Ngatoro and W. Kahaki. A further 29 names of soldiers and airmen, both Māori and Pākehā, were added after the Second World War.
Ten years later Te Araroa got another war memorial with the opening of a dining hall, Te Rongomaitāpui, at Hinerupe Marae in April 1938. This was dedicated to the glory of God and in lasting memory of those who fell in the First World War. Sometime after the Second World War the memorial obelisk was moved from the domain to a site in front of the marae.
On 13 April 1996, Rongomaitāpui burnt to the ground and the nearby Hinerupe meeting house was gutted in a fire caused by an electrical fault. The marae complex was rebuilt and reopened on 30 March 2002. (About this time the war memorial obelisk was moved again, being resited nearer St Stephen’s Anglican Church, beside the marae.)
A roll of honour in the Matakaoa RSA & Citizens Club lists the names of the servicemen recorded on the obelisk. The names of local Māori men who served overseas during the First World War and of all local men who served in the Second World War and later wars can be found in Bob McConnell’s book, Te Araroa (pp. 391-2).
Sources: ‘Maori Ceremony’, Evening Post, 26/4/1928, p. 8; ‘Hopeful Sign: East Coast Maori’, Auckland Star, 26/2/1938, p. 15; ‘Flood Drama’, Auckland Star, 30/4/1938, p. 12; Bob McConnell, Te Araroa: An East Coast Community, Gisborne, 1993, pp. 303-5, 311-27, 391-2; Bob McConnell, Nga Konohi O Rongomaitapui Raua ko Hinerupe, Te Araroa, 1996, pp. 22-37, 44; Hinerupe ‘Mana Potiki’: The Opening of Hinerupe Marae, Gisborne, 2002; David Simmons, Meeting-Houses of Ngāti Porou O Te Tai Rāwhiti, Auckland, 2006, pp. 141-4; Bob McConnell, Out of the Ashes: The Hinerupe Story, Gisborne, 2011, pp. iii-6, 106-11 passim.
Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2015. Text amended 2017.