(a) Regarding royalty payable to the owner of the deposit, I understand that there is an outside market for the material even though the demand is nowhere near as great as our requirements. It would appear that the payment of a royalty cannot be avoided.
(b) The material is exceptionally good for the type of filling required and the compaction costs should be well below those for material from alternative sources of supply. The quoted price of 3/- per cubic yard is reasonable in an area notoriously lacking in good fill material.94
Approval was given in August 1965 for the additional 26,000 yards to be supplied by Prince Ltd. In total 70,000 cubic yards of material was removed from the north face of Pukewhanake to supply the Ministry of Works. For this material Clarke received £4,200 in total.
Not only was the Pukewhanake pa damaged by the excavation of filling material (see Figure 10), but another form of desecration occurred as well. In the process of removing the hillside, skeletal remains were exposed. According to members of Ngati Kahu the bones were deposited on the road. Kaumatua from Ngati Kahu collected the bones from the road and buried them in the hapu cemetery on the other side of the river.95
Calls for Protection of Pukewhanake
Ironically, the very fact that Pukewhanake had been damaged led to an interest being taken in its preservation. In 1970 the Lands and Survey Department sent a representative to Tauranga to identify coastal pa sites which were being threatened by roading and residential development. The senior assistant surveyor from Rotorua, M.J. Wilson, met with D. Borrell, representing the Tauranga Maori Executive and the Tauranga Historical Society, and N. Nicholls from the Tauranga District Museum Committee. After inspecting old maps Wilson decided that three pa were ‘in immediate need of protection and preservation.’96 These were Pukewhanake and Paorangi, both owned by H.J. Clarke, and Oruamatua pa at Matapihi. The Bay of Plenty Times reported that Wilson intended:
approaching the landowners concerned seeking co-operation in protecting the sites from further deterioration. He hopes to have the sites fenced off.
Mr Wilson said it was apparent most of the other pa sites in the area were already protected by coastal reserves. Others were on private land within the city boundary well preserved by their owners.
The department’s concern, Mr Wilson said, was mostly with pas and fortifications adjacent to coastal reserves, but not quite protected by them.97
It is not known whether Lands and Survey did approach Clarke about protecting the pa sites on his property, and if so, what the outcome was. However, it is clear that by this time, the Crown’s attempt to preserve sites was too late. Pukewhanake had
94 District Commissioner of Works to Commissioner of Works, 3 August 1965, W 72/2/3A/2 Tauranga Section, NA Records Centre, Auckland
95 Des Tatana Kahotea, ‘Tauranga Urban Growth Strategy: Cultural Resource Inventory: Features of Significance to the Maori Community’, Tauranga District Council, 1992, p 59
F10