Founders win four-year battle

Founders vice-president Joan Dickens (left), Anne Woodley and treasurer Jean Gray at the lychgate entrance to the Pioneer Cemetery. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

The icing on Masterton woman Anne Woodley's birthday cake yesterday came in the form of a jasper stone and memorial plaque.

Mrs Woodley had turned 71 and at 2.40pm, won a four-year battle with Masterton District Council in her role as president of the Wairarapa branch of the New Zealand Founders Society.

Councillors unanimously decided to go against the recommendation of council officers by voting to reinstate the jasper stone and memorial plaque to the district's founders in its original position in front of the lychgate at the entrance to the town's Pioneer Cemetery.

Officers had recommended the stone and plaque should be shunted to one side of the lychgate, after a total absence from the area of four years at which time the seat and stone wall on either side of the entrance was bulldozed.

In a formal presentation to the council's policy and finance committee yesterday, Mrs Woodley, who was supported in the public gallery by Founders members, said the stone and plaque erected in 1974 had gone missing when the walls flanking the lychgate were wrecked.

She said the removal of the stone, which had been sourced from the Waingawa River, was "an act of vandalism" and despite asking for years where it had got to, society members had been "fobbed off" with claims it was in safekeeping.

Mrs Woodley said up until now there seemed to have been an "orchestrated culture of complete indifference on the part of senior parks staff to the wishes of the founders.

"All we have ever wanted out of this sorry mess is to have the stone reinstated in front of the lychgate. We feel we have been very shabbily treated."

During the term of the previous council, the branch had written to the mayor over the issue and had not received a reply.

'We were left to wonder if councillors were even aware of the historical importance of the lychgate memorial."

Mrs Woodley said putting the jasper stone back, but at the side of the entrance would give the impression it was of little significance.

There was no suggestion it would restrict access to the cemetery.

Mrs Woodley said councillors should put things right by "putting the stone back where you took it from".

"It represents a symbolic building block of the very foundation of the town and district.

"A great deal of thought was put into its conception 40 years ago."

Despite the officers recommendation, when it came to a vote councillors agreed unanimously they should abide by the wishes of the Founders Society and overturned the recommendation.

The jasper stone and memorial plaque will be reinstated in its original position in consultation with the society and stonemason Roger Hoar.