Arson charge for Mangatainoka grandstand accused

The collapsed remains of the Mangatainoka grandstand after Sunday's fire. Photo / Supplied

An open cemetery gate was the first clue that a fire that destroyed an iconic rugby grandstand between Pahiatua and Woodville may have been suspicious.

Kerry Fergus, who leases part of the Mangatainoka Domain on which the century-old building stood, reckons he knew someone had been through the gate he'd closed a day or so earlier.

"Otherwise I wouldn't have been any the wiser," he said the day after the Sunday blaze, and the arrest of an 18-year-old apprehended nearby, who was charged with arson.

A 69-year-old member of the domain committee for close to 50 years, and a player with a family history in the Mangatainoka Rugby Football Club - which went into recess about 35 years ago -Fergus was still in disbelief over what had happened.

He was at home when he got the call, and arrived at the domain minutes later, just beaten by the first of the fire appliances.

"It's buggered," he said. "A good wind would blow it down."

"We'd like to see it rebuilt, but what's the use?" he said, but said decisions would be in the hands of insurers and the Tararua District Council.

"We haven't even had a meeting yet."

The grandstand had been a symbol of grassroots New Zealand particularly since a refurbishment and its 2008 re-opening by the late Sir Colin Meads.

It was later the scene of several Hurricanes Super Rugby pre-season games, with up to 9000 fans in an arena transformed from what was mainly farm paddock to a sports stadium, within a few hundred metres of the Tui Brewery and its famed brewhouse.