Council blocks air crash memorial bid
Plans for shoebox-sized memorial in Porirua to commemorate a local air crash in 1930 have been dashed because the event doesn’t have enough ‘‘exceptional significance’’ to warrant one.
Maurice (Jock) John McKenzie Cameron died on April 7, 1930 after his Monocoupe aircraft lost speed while landing and crashed nose-first into the ground near where Mitre 10 is today. He is buried in Karori Cemetery. Cameron fought in Sinai and Palestine campaigns with the Wellington Mounted Rifles during World War I and trained with the Royal Air Force before getting discharged in 1919. He rejoined the military five years later as a 2nd Lieutenant in the newly founded New Zealand Permanent Air Force.
Historian Allan Dodson the crash was a significant event for the town, which had a population of 600 people then, and made national news.
‘‘When the tide went out, Porirua had a long, sandy beach so you could practice landing and taking off on that beach – there weren’t any formed airports around.
‘‘Aircraft was still new in those days, so the school kids were taken out of school and people stopped work to come look at planes take off and land.’’
Over the past 18 months, volunteers from the NZ Remembrance Army have been trying to convince the Porirua City Council to agree a location to place a shoebox-sized memorial of the crash, with options including a corner near the Mitre 10 car park or somewhere close to Mana College.
NZ Remembrance Army chief executive and former army major Simon Strombom said council officers were giving them the ‘‘runaround’’, as they kept turning down proposed places for the
Historian Allan Dodson says Porirua’s ‘‘long, sandy beach’’ played a part in New Zealand’s aviation history. Left, Dodson holds a photograph of the 1930 crash that killed Maurice Cameron. Top right, Dodson stands at Tītahi Bay Rd near where the crash occurred.
memorial. ‘‘We’ve got the impression from early on that we were a bit of an inconvenience. I’m just a bit disappointed where we’ve ended up.’’
Another project with KiwiRail to have a plaque installed at Paremata train station to remember Sergeant Arthur John (Jack)
Gape – a former WWI soldier who was struck and killed by a train while on Home Guard duties in 1942 – went smoothly.
‘‘The whole project took eight to 10 hours, including me arranging the plaque,’’ Strombom said.
Porirua City Council acting infrastructure general manager Olivia Dovey denied the council has given NZ Remembrance Army the ‘‘runaround’’, saying there wasn’t an appropriate place in the city for a memorial. ‘‘[The proposed location] is a busy part of the Tītahi Bay Road corridor, with a high traffic volume.’’
She also said while the air crash was an ‘‘undoubtedly tragic event’’, the city’s Reserves Management Plan required a public memorial needed to be ‘‘in places associated with people, traditions or events of exceptional significance to Porirua’’.
‘‘While the crash will have some interest from a historical perspective, we do not consider it an ‘exceptional’ event in our city’s past to meet the criteria.’’
Strombom said the volunteers just want to note a small part of Porirua’s history.