A Kerikeri battler laid to rest

One of the last members of a group of determined, far-sighted women who saved the area around Kerikeri’s Stone Store from a developer’s bulldozers has died, aged 98.

Joyce Doreen Mason passed away in Kerikeri on May 27 and was buried at St James’ Anglican Church, a stone’s throw from the historic reserve she helped save.

Her funeral took place in the Ted Robinson Memorial Chapel, at Kerikeri Retirement Village, on Friday.

Along with the late author and historian Nancy Pickmere, Mrs Mason was one of the founder members of the Society for the Preservation of the Kerikeri Stone Store Area (Spokssa), after one morning in 1969, when they were horrified to see bulldozers at work on the ka¯inga (village) adjoining Hongi Hika’s Kororipo Pa¯, overlooking the Stone Store, where more than 100 houses were planned.

After five years of fundraising, lobbying and legal battles, they managed to halt the subdivision, and persuaded the government to buy the land for a historic reserve.

Mrs Mason, who was for decades Spokssa’s secretary, was honoured by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 2003. In 2005 she was honoured by Far North District Council for almost 40 years’ service to the Kerikeri Beautification Society.

Heritage New Zealand Northland manager Bill Edwards described her as “an amazing woman,” who, with other Spokssa members, had been instrumental in saving the Kerikeri Basin for posterity. She is survived by three children and six grandchildren.

Nancy Pickmere died in 2012, also aged 98.

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PICTURE / FILE Kerikeri’s Stone Store might have been surrounded by houses but for the efforts of women like Joyce Mason.