One Tree Hill Obelisk. Auckland. New Zealand.
S 36° 54.000 E 174° 46.990
60H E 302483 N 5913925
This obelisk stands on the summit of One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park, Auckland.
Waymark Code: WM3P3X
Location: New Zealand
Date Posted: 04/27/2008
Views: 35
One Tree Hill Domain or Maungakiekie (118 acres / 48 hectares) is an Auckland City Council-administered park adjoining Cornwall Park (425 acres / 172 hectares) creating a total of 220 hectares (540 acres) of public green space.
On the summit of the hill is the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell surmounted by an obelisk. The obelisk was constructed in accordance with the wishes and provisions in John Campbell's will to commemorate his admiration for the Maori people. Before it stands a bronze statue of a Maori warrior. The stone Obelisk was completed by 1940 – the centennial year of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi but the unveiling of the Obelisk was delayed until 24 April 1948, after World War II was over, in keeping with Maori custom of not holding such ceremonies during a time of bloodshed.
The obelisk is roughly 30 m (100 feet) tall and surrounded by a paved area, incorporating Logan Campbell's grave. The memorial includes a bronze Maori statue, cast by the sculptor Richard Gross, of a man with a huia feather in his hair and mere in his raised right hand. Four bronze plaques around the plinth commemorate Campbell's bequest, and provide a mid twentieth-century account of Maori migration and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. They are notable for being inscribed in both English and Maori, and affirm Maori as the first peoples of New Zealand.
More history of the obelisk can be found on the NZ Historic Places Trust Website.