Story: First World War

The mayor of Whanganui, Hope Gibbons, places soil from the battlefields of Belgium in a corner of the Māori memorial at Moutoa Gardens, on 20 May 1925. The huge costs of the First World War were remembered in New Zealand by the hundreds of memorials that were put up in communities around the nation. Every Anzac Day services to honour the dead were held. Whanganui was unusual in having a specific memorial to local Māori who had died. It lists 17 names and the memorial is topped by a statue of a local Māori soldier, Herewini Wakarua. Soil from four battlefields of the war was placed in niches at the four corners of the memorial.