How Monument Hill got its name
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From the Archives
How Monument Hill acquired its name Ron Lambert
Senior Researcher Puke Ariki
The name Monument Hill for the prominent spur immediately to the south of
Boatshed Bridge in Pukekura Park is derived from a granite obelisk erected, probably
in late 1903, to 777 Trooper Clement Edward Wiggins who, as a member of the 3rd
New Zealand Mounted Rifles (the 3rd Contingent), served in South Africa during the
Boer War.
Wiggins was a clerk for the Bank of New South Wales at both Eltham and New
Plymouth. He had worked in Christchurch before being transferred to Taranaki in
1898. Wiggins joined No. 5 Company of the 3rd Contingent in New Plymouth in
February 1900. The Contingent arrived in South Africa on 26 March 1900. Wiggins’
war was short. He died, aged 27, from enteric (typhoid) fever at Germiston in South
Africa on 13 July 1900. Enteric fever proved to be a more deadly foe than the Boer
forces. Of the 3rd Contingent’s total of 26 deaths, 20 were from the fever.
In September 1900, the Star and Tukapa Rugby Clubs of New Plymouth proposed a
memorial to the three of their former players who had, at that stage, died in the war -
Wiggins, Thomas Hempton of Okato, and Charles Enderby of Inglewood.
Controversy soon erupted in the correspondence columns of the Taranaki Herald as to
the siting of the proposed memorial. Ideas ranged from St Mary’s Church to Te Henui
Cemetery and the Recreation Grounds (as Pukekura Park was known then). One letter
counselled that a monument to the three young men would be premature because
Taranaki should wait until the end of the conflict, when a memorial to all local
casualties could be made.
While it appears that the trio’s rugby mates were suitably discouraged, Wiggins’
banking colleagues in Taranaki and Canterbury were made of sterner stuff, and they
persisted. In May 1903, the Bank of New South Wales Manager at New Plymouth, N.
K. MacDiarmid, received consent from the Recreation Grounds Board to erect a
memorial, to Wiggins alone, “on the tongue of land near the long island and the path
leading to Mr King’s.”
In August 1903, the Taranaki Herald was finally able to report that “the many friends
of the late C. E. Wiggins, who volunteered for service in South Africa with the Third
Contingent, and died at Germiston, will be pleased to learn that the stone to be erected
to his memory, by the officers of the Bank of New South Wales in New Zealand, has
just been imported by Mr W. F. Brooking, to whom the work has been entrusted, and
its erection will be proceeded with at once. The memorial is an obelisk of polished
grey granite, and it is, by permission of the Board, to be placed in the Recreation
Grounds” (Taranaki Herald 26/8/1903).
What became of the young bank clerk’s memorial remains a bit of a mystery. The
only real clue is a caption to the postcard photograph of the obelisk by Muir and
Moodie (reproduced here) when it was published in the Taranaki Herald of 8 March
1962: “… Later the memorial became overgrown and in bad repair and was rolled
down the hill and finally removed.” It does, however, seem a little strange that such a
substantial object was not transferred to somewhere like the Te Henui Cemetery.
Maybe the fervour of Wiggins’ banking and rugby colleagues had waned somewhat,
and cash to complete such a transfer was not forthcoming.
Thus it is that only the name, Monument Hill, and the flattened spur near the
Boatshed Bridge where the obelisk once stood, now survive. However, Clement
Wiggins’ name is recorded on two South African War memorials in New Plymouth, at
St. Mary’s Pro-cathedral and the fountain on Marsland Hill.
