Park has had a chequered history

CRUNCH: A hurricane force storm in October 1934 demolished the roof of the grandstand at Memorial Park.

In September 1918 the Wairarapa Caledonian Society and members of the local athletics club made application to Masterton Borough Council, asking that a fence be erected around Masterton Park oval so they could charge for admission to the events.

At a meeting early in October they offered to pay 120 towards the cost, and said they thought it would be a good memorial to the fallen soldiers.

Mayor Coradine was not in favour - he said it was wrong to spend a large amount of money for the benefit of a few, especially when the town's roads and footpaths needed so much work. He laid down a challenge: "If you are so anxious to have a fenced-off running track and sports ground, why don't you athletic bodies do as similar institutions in other towns do - buy your own ground?"

Things moved quickly from there. A committee was formed and on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, it made an offer to the showground syndicate. By Christmas the committee was able to make a grand announcement that a committee representing sporting bodies had bought the old showgrounds as a memorial to the fallen soldiers, and would develop a running track, two rugby fields and at least one cricket ground.

The committee, which included the two Cameron brothers, called for the public to "play the game" and help raise funds to provide a memorial for the soldiers and a facility for their children.

Later that month it was disclosed that the brothers had donated a substantial part of the costs of the grounds in honour of the memory of Norman Cameron, and the grounds would be known as the Cameron and Fallen Soldiers Memorial Sportsground.

The community got in behind the idea of the sportsground being the main memorial and a wide variety of fund raising was undertaken - concerts, raffles, sports games and socials were all held. A new grandstand was built on the southern side of the ground, renowned landscape architect A.W. Buxton was called in to design the layout, and plantings took place. There were plans for extensive "memorial tablets" to list the names of all the dead.

In an historic twist, Norman Jones, the grandson of Henry Jones, the first man to plough the land when Murdoch McKenzie owned it, brought his team of horses to work on preparing the land for sowing.

However, the idea did not have universal support, with at least one critic complaining about the grounds memorialising one soldier in particular, while others thought the main memorial to the fallen should be in Masterton Park. In the end a compromise was met, where the one committee raised funds for a large marble and bronze memorial which was sited on the main drive in the park, officially the Wairarapa Soldiers Memorial but commonly known as the Cenotaph, and also established Cameron and Soldiers Memorial Park.

The Cenotaph was officially dedicated with great solemnity on September 16, 1923, but there was no such fanfare for the Cameron and Soldiers Memorial Park, as it came to be known. A trust board was appointed to oversee the grounds but found the development financially difficult and in 1926 the Masterton Trust Lands Trust assumed responsibility, their major tenant being the Wairarapa Rugby Union.

The ground was to suffer a major misfortune in October 1934 when a hurricane force storm raged through Wairarapa. Among the Masterton buildings to suffer extensive damage was the ground's grandstand, which lost its roof. Under the terms of its lease, the Wairarapa Rugby Union was obliged to carry out repairs - fortunately they received help from the national union - but as World War II approached they ran into trouble paying their lease, due to falling gate takings.

In 1940 a committee of members from the Masterton Trust Lands Trust, the Masterton Borough Council and the Masterton Beautifying Society was formed to decide the ground's future. The trust was keen to hand it over to the council, but the council was reluctant.

The park's story was to take another twist, as from 1942 the grounds were used to house United States Marines, on leave from the battles of the Pacific theatre, or preparing for further conflict. After the Marines left the New Zealand Army took over, using the huts for troops involved in farm work. After the war the Public Works Department was given the job to return the grounds to their original state, in order to be handed back on April 1, 1946 - but fate intervened and in January of that year the grandstand burned to the ground.

The trust received insurance money to rebuild the stand but post-war shortages made it difficult to rebuild, and also stymied the plan to redevelop the grounds. In 1952 the trust gladly handed over the grounds to the borough council, relieved to end its 26-year guardianship.

The main user of the park was the Wairarapa Rugby Union but facilities were very fundamental - there were no ladies' toilets and the men's were badly damaged. Although it was decided that the grounds would be shared by athletics in summer and rugby in winter, there was no agreement about how to rebuild the grandstand.

In the end the New Zealand Rugby Union came to the rescue, with a significant load to enable a new stand to be built on the western side of the main ground. The project was not easy to carry out - there were cost overruns and at one stage the rugby union withdrew its offer, but in the end the parties managed to work out a compromise. The president of the New Zealand Rugby Union, Greytown's H. A. McPhee, opened the new stand in June 1963. The stand was further extended in the 1980s.

During the 1960s the grounds were shared by the rugby players in winter and the athletes in summer. In the following decade it hosted a frenetic episode of the television's Top Town competition.

The proposed changes at the grounds could equip it for another expanded purpose. Let's hope its rich history is remembered.