Technical Assessments of Whitaunui Military Defaulters Camp

Description

Introduction

In 2018 the site of Whitaunui, the World War II Military Defaulters’ Camp near Shannon, was was listed as a Schedule 2 heritage site in the District Plan of the Horowhenua District Council.

What is the significance of the listing of a site in the District Plan? The decision is made by the Council after considering submissions, research reports and the results of wide public consultation. The owners of listed properties must comply with some specific provisions to ensure that the development of the property does not adversely affect its significant heritage characteristics so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Margaret Tate writes:

The three defaulters’ camps in the Shannon district were Paiaka on Springs Road, the adjacent Tyrell’s Farm and Whitaunui on the Shannon Foxton Road.

Whitaunui was selected as the heritage site because of its larger size, its archaeological remains and its historical significance in the earlier flax milling industry.

Two reports which contributed to the Council’s decision:

• Horowhenua District Council, Nomination Form, Historic Heritage Buildings, Structures and Sites, January 2016.
• Horowhenua District Council, Supporting Information – Proposed Plan Change Whitaunui Military Defaulter’s Camp, 2016.

Other general historical information on the three Shannon conscientious objector camps and the experiences of the men detained in them can be found in the following articles, originally published in The Manawatu Journal of History. They are also now available on the website: manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz:

• Tate. Margaret. ‘An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946.’ The Manawatu Journal of History 12, 2016.
• Tate, Margaret. ‘Time to Speak.’ The Manawatu Journal of History 14, 2018.

Contributions of memoirs from individuals connected with the camps are still welcome. If you have material of interest, including such things as photographs, letters and diaries, this can be added at any time to the digital archive Manawatū Heritage or deposited with the Palmerston North City Archives at the City Library. It may also be added to Kete Horowhenua at Te Takere, Levin, website: horowhenua.kete.net.nz where other relevant information may also be found.

. . .

Mrs Mary Bielski was the former owner of the property on the Shannon Foxton Road which is the site of Whitanunui the largest of the three military detention camps established near Shannon in World War ll.In 2015 she invited me to see photographs and memorabilia she had collected and showed me the foundations of camp buildings still existing in the paddocks. Afterwards I was invited to undertake further research which was published in an article in the Manawatu Journal of History in 2016. Numerous people then contacted me contributing stories about life in the camps and a further article appeared in the Journal in 2018. These are included in this document.

. . . The The research had been encouraged and supported throughout by the committee of Historic Places Manawatu-Horowhenua and in 2018 the Chairperson Cindy Lilburn submitted a ……for the inclusion of the site of Whitaunui to be included in Horowhenua District Council District Plan as a … . Further research and a site examination was ……. B Valerie Burr and Ian Bowman and resulted in the …..of the in category 2..

I have also included a list of references to earlier publications which I have found useful. Out in the Cold by David Grant provides the best general background. My article in the Manawatu Journal of History, Volume 12 provides a context for material about the Shannon camps. The image on the front cover comes from the book Harry’s Absence, Looking for My Father on the Mountain by Jonathan Scott (Victoria University Press, 1997).

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Download the PDF file to see the photos.

H67 - Whitaunui Military Defaulter’s Camp

SUMMARY DETAILS

Current Owner: R.R. and M.L. Bielski Limited

Address: 1027 Foxton-Shannon Road, Moutoa

Legal Description: Moutoa 116 Block

Certificates of Title: WN602/93

Construction date: From 1910

Architect: Not Applicable

Original Owner: Whitaunui Ltd. (1910), NZ Govt. (1939)

Builder: Unknown (various)

PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY

Unless otherwise referenced, much of this report relating to the Defaulters’ Camp itself, originated as Palmerston North historian Margaret Tate’s as­yet-unpaginated text entitled ‘An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946.’ That article is being published in Volume 12 of the Manawatū Journal of History, in 2016. However, much of the information on the Whitaunui Flaxmill that preceded the camp, is new research.

The World War Two (WWII) camp for conscientious objectors’ near the Moutoa Hall on the Foxton-Shannon Road was known by a variety of names. Firstly, was the problem of the spelling used for the locality, which correctly is spelt ‘Whitaunui’. ‘Whitau’ means prepared fibre of Phormium tenax (more commonly known as flax) and ‘Nui’ means large. Thus Whitaunui translates to ‘big or large prepared flax fibre’ – a name befitting of the old flaxmill once on the site. However, despite the correct spelling of the name, the camp was always identified under the spelling ‘Whitanui’. This matched the phonetic pronunciation of the name that was in vogue within the Pakeha community around the time of both the camp and also the flaxmill that preceded it.1

In this study, the miss-spelling of the name is acknowledged, however, the correct spelling is deemed the more appropriate to use in a present-day document. That the correct spelling is now used for the locality and the nearby Whitaunui Road (which is across the Manawatu River from the old flaxmill/camp site) also suggests the appropriate way to handle the old error. It is noteworthy that the flaxmill’s owners, in at least some of their own published notices, used the correct spelling of Whitaunui. Similarly, the Horowhenua Chronicle routinely used the correct spelling in the 1910s (unlike other newspapers).

1 Email dated 2 May 2016, Todd Taiepa (Principal Maori Advisor, PNCC) to Margaret Tate (forwarded to myself on the same date - VB)

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

conscientious objectors, but the latter term certainly was not included in the official name of the camp itself during its lifetime.2

Figure 1 Overlooking the Whitaunui Detention Camp accommodation area, between 1942 and 1946, with the Tararua Ranges in the distance. The driveway to left, is now the farm’s Figure 2 This photo taken on 11 May 2016 shows approximately the same scene as in th main driveway, leading beteen the Foxtn-Shannon Road, and the cowshed. Th driveway upper photo with the driveway eadng down to the Foxton-Shannon Road The section of leding off to the right in this photo, then lead toward the present-day hayshed site (perhaps black-painted fence in the centre distance in this photo marks the site of the guardhouse in the WWI photo

once the scutching shed site ). It now also leads to the farm’s homestead which is on the near (clothes line) side of that driveway, as shown here.

(Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago, Library: Asset ID: 7711 http://hockensnapshop.ac.nz/nodes/view/3232)

The rest of the title of the camp’s name also varied significantly in the contemporary records. The two local camps for conscientious objectors at Whitaunui and nearby Paiaka (and indeed the others around the country) were variously referred to as detention camps, defaulters’ detention camps and military defaulters’ camps, as well as other unofficial names intended as insults. The Whitaunui Defaulters’ Detention Camp housed

Figure 45 Approximately the same scene on 11th May 2016, with the driveway leading to the big old shed, in the foreground. It is thought that the white-painted rocks that lined the driveway in the 1940s, might now possibly be some of the large rocks still forming rockeries in the vicinity of the house now, as this is not a stoney farm and the rocks will have needed to have been brought to the location. The flaxmill cottages once stood at about the centre of this scene, but in the distance and just before the trees shown (which in turn are on the opposite side of the Foxton-Shannon Road).

2 For example, Evening Post, 6 March 1945, p. 7, 26 May 1945, p. 9; Press, 20 September 1944, p. 7

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

The Whitaunui Flaxmill

In the absence at this time of an early plan of the property, a way to try to sort out the various buildings present in 1942 requires studying the former Whitaunui Flaxmill.

Figure 3 The small one-man and two-man accommodation huts at Whitaunui Detention Camp, beyond the driveway leading in the direction of the large old shed that may have once been the site of the scutching shed. The photo was taken between 1942 and 1946.

(Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago, Library: Asset ID: 7706: http://hockensnapshop.ac.nz/nodes/view/3227 )

Nowadays, the actual remains of the Whitaunui and Paiaka camps amount to a random selection of concrete foundations and various old pipes. Identifying what they once were can be difficult. In Whitaunui’s case, an uncertain number of these old remnants relate to the old flaxmill, but it is likely that many of these structures were repurposed for the camp. The Paiaka camp, which is not part of this report, was located in Springs Road. The two camps housed some 250 men during their four-year existence.

Figure 4 Approximately the same scene on 11th May 2016, with the driveway leading to the big old shed, in the foreground. It is thought that the white-painted rocks that lined the driveway in the 1940s, might now possibly be some of the large rocks still forming rockeries in the vicinity of the house now, as this is not a stoney farm, and the rocks will have needed to have been brought to the location. The flaxmill cottages once stood at about the centre of this scene, but in the distance and just before the trees shown (which in turn are on the opposite side of the Foxton-Shannon Road).

Marjorie Law’s book, From Bush & Swamp: The Centerary of Shannon 1887-1987 (p. 101), states that the Whitaunui Flaxmill operated between

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

1910 and 1922, although these dates are not entirely correct. The Whitaunui mill originated with a 1,650-acre block of swampland that was purchased in 1906 from the Makerua Estate Company. The buyers were Messrs Jupp and Heyes. In March 1908, they sold the property to a small syndicate that included Harry Greig, then managing director of Temukanui Ltd., which was based at Tokomaru. Greig then also became managing director of the resulting new company, ‘Whitaunui Limited’. This firm was, at the time of purchase, intending to have one mill in Foxton and two near Shannon. The price paid for the land, which included existing “mills” was described as “something over £40,000.”3 The principal shareholders of Whitaunui Limited were Harry Greig, Reg Bell and F.W. Wilson.4

However, on 19th October 1909, the Whitaunui Flaxmill was destroyed by fire. The fire had started in the “tow hole” and had then been fanned by a strong westerly wind. It quickly spread to the engine room. However, the fibre had with difficulty been saved from the scutching shed. The mill was uninsured.5

In early 1910, Whitaunui Ltd. purchased the property at Moutoa of a Mr Jagger 6 and this seems to be the land that subsequently became the detention camp. The Manawatu Standard of 3rd March 1910 (p, 6) reported that: “It is possible that the Whitaunui Flaxmilling Company will erect a four-stripper mill on the property they have recently purchased at Moutoa from Mr Jagger.” This land was on the opposite bank to the company’s flax swamp land and explains why Whitaunui Road is on one side of the river, while the mill was on the other. This now meant that the flax had to be transported across the Manawatu River for processing.

3 Bush Advocate, 20 March 1907, p. 4

4 Marjorie D. Law, From Bush & Swamp: The Centenary of Foxton 1887-1987 (Palmerston North, 1987), p. 101

5 Evening Post, 19 October 1909, p. 8

6 Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 April 1910, p. 2. It is likely that this was a Mr A. Jagger, who
subsequently purchased another property about half way between Shannon and Foxton.

The replacement mill was described in the Horowhenua Chronicle, of 13th August 1910 (p. 4):

“According to the ‘Auckland Weekly News’, Mr H. Greig is likely to start three of the four strippers of the large mill at Moutoa, which is being erected by Whitanui, Ltd., at the latter end of next month. A 200 h.p. Babcock and Wilcox water tube boiler has been installed. A 130 h.p. engine will drive the stripper and a 60 h.p. will drive the scutchers. The pump for supplying the Suttie-Wynyard machines will be a 10-inch centrifugal, capable of lifting 1000 gallons of water per minute. A steam winch will be employed to haul the green leaf across the Manawatu River from the tram-head by means of an aerial wire rope. The leaf will be landed in the yards which are practically on a level with the strippers.”

Several months later, the Horowhenua Chronicle, of 23rd December 1910 (p. 5) reported the following, under the headline: ‘The Flaxmills’

“The mill belonging to Whitanui, Ltd., at Moutoa closed down yesterday for the Christmas and New Year Holidays. The company have installed two scutching machines, one of which has been running for a month, and one for a fortnight. During this period one hundred tons of dry fibre has been scutched, most of which was graded high point – ‘good fair’.”

“A noticeable feature of the above mill is the accommodation provided for the men. The old-time whare, with its tier upon tier of flea-ridden

bunks, is here represented by a line of tents, comfortably pitched upon frames, while the board supplied compared favourably with that at any of the local hotels.”

In January 1913, Palmerston North architectural firm, L.G. West & Son, called for one, two or three separate tenders to undertake extensive alterations and additions to the mill buildings at Moutoa for Whitaunui Ltd. The work, which also included one contract at Temukanui Ltd’s mill at

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Tokomaru, was described as consisting “generally of accommodation for fifty men, stabling for thirty horses, septic drainage and other works”7

As the Temukanui flaxmill at Tokomaru was well established by this point, it seems likely that the accommodation and stabling, along with related drainage matters, will have been for the Whitaunui flaxmill. Margaret Tate, in An Indeterminate Sentence, writes that the Whitaunui mill workers had lived near the mill on the one bank of the Manawatu River, while the flax cutters had a cookhouse and living quarters on the other bank.8

In April 1914, L.G. West & Son again called for tenders for work for Whitaunui Ltd. This work consisted of erecting eight workers’ cottages at the Moutoa mill.9

On 12th June 1914, the Manawatu Standard (p. 7) announced that:

“The Whitaunui mill will close down on Saturday, probably for six weeks, during which time a new cable will be erected across the Manawatu for the purpose of conveying the green flax across. The cable will be supported by two steel towers, designed by Mr Grieg. The whole of the construction has been carried out at the mill. The cable will be anchored on each side of the river in thirty tons of concrete. The steel towers will stand a pressure of 75 tons without buckling. The chief advantage accruing from this improvement will be that the green leaf can be conveyed across during the time that the river is in flood.”

7 Horowhenua Chronicle, 11 January 1913, p.

8 Margaret Tate, 'An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946', in Manawatū Journal of History, Vol. 12 (2016), forthcoming - unpaginated.

9 Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 April 1914, p. 3

There was nothing unusual about flying fox systems in remote industrial situations then. Some of New Zealand’s timber mills also had similar aerial systems for transporting logs over difficult valleys and streams.

According to Law (p. 101), the Whitaunui flaxmill ceased operating in 1922, this timeframe doubtless coinciding with the appearance of the disease ‘yellow leaf’ that badly affecting the District’s flax. The company did, however, advertise in the NZ Herald on 21st August 1923 (p. 1) seeking flax cutters. The former swamp was in due course drained and then converted into farmland in the 1930s.10

The Whitaunui mill itself evidently operated to some extent until about 1937. The Government, which was still trying to encourage the flax industry, then bought the mill in 1939.11

Industrial buildings known to have been at the mill site by 1942 will have included the flax stripping building and its large typically barn-like scutching shed. The site probably also included the accommodation for fifty men built in 1913, plus a 30-horse stable that may perhaps have been on the opposite bank. Then there were the eight cottages that had been built for the mill workers in 1914. These appear to have stood near the Foxton-Shannon Road. There was also further accommodation and a cookhouse on the opposite bank. In addition, there was the flying fox system for transportation across the river.

The Whitaunui Military Defaulters’ Camp

The Emergency Regulations Act 1939 was passed by the New Zealand Government shortly after the declaration of war and this gave the government wide powers. Difficulties with obtaining enough troops for overseas service led the Government to reluctantly introduce conscription, using the National Service Emergency Regulations of 18th June 1940;

10 Law, p. 101; Evening Post, 5 November 1925, p. 16

11 Tate, 'An Indeterminate Sentence’

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

which in turn was made under the Defence Act and the Emergency Regulations Amendment Act of 31st May.

This amendment placed people and property in the hands of the government. Men aged between 18 and 46 became liable to be called up by ballot, with volunteering for army service ceasing from 22nd July 1940. The option to serve in the Navy and Air Force, however, remained voluntary. From January 1942, workers could also be ‘manpowered’ or directed to serve in the various essential industries.12

An irony was that the Labour Government then in power included four members of the cabinet (including Prime Minister Peter Fraser) who had been imprisoned during World War One (WWI) due to anti-subscription activities.

Traditionally the Labour Government opposed conscription, however, when the vote was taken to reintroduce it in 1940, only one man in either of the two Houses of Parliament voted against it. This was Palmerston North man, Mark Briggs, who was by then a Labour Member of the Legislative Council, but who along with the well-known conscientious objector, Archibald Baxter, had been one of the fourteen severely ill-treated WWI conscientious objectors. These men had been transported from New Zealand to the battlefields of France and forced (or in Briggs’ case dragged along the duckboards) into the front line.13

12 ‘Compulsory Military Training in New Zealand’, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompulsorymilitarytraininginNewZealand#CITEREFMcGib bon2000 Note that this information is footnoted as deriving from: ‘Conscription’ in the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History pp 117–120 (2000) edited by Ian McGibbon, citing pages 118–120. This publication was not sighted during this study.

13 David Grant, ‘Briggs, Mark 1884-1965,’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Volume Three 1901-1920’ (Auckland, 1996), pp. 66-67; also Evening Post, 1 June 1940, p. 8

It is noteworthy that prior to the First World War, Briggs had been a Manawatu flaxworker; an executive committee member of the Manawatu Flaxmill Employees’ Union; and also a supporter of the radical ‘Red Feds’.

Being based at nearby Makerua in 1914 (and probably working at the Miranui or Weka Flaxmills), he will have been very familiar with the Whitaunui Flaxmill. While any role he may or may not have later played in relation to this camp or the Paiaka camp, has not been researched and must be considered speculation, the possibility of Briggs’ involvement in some form (other than through his objection in 1940 to the camps being established at all) should be noted.14

The introduction of conscription, or compulsory military service, was the trigger that led to the establishment of the defaulter camps.15 Conscientious objection had been allowed for under the legislation, provided the applicant could prove to the satisfaction of the Appeal Board that he had objected on conscientious grounds before the outbreak of war.16

Men could also be exempted from service on medical or compassionate grounds, or because of the importance of their civilian work. Men seeking exemption on conscientious grounds faced far greater difficulty. Only 20% of men seeking this means to escape conscription were successful. Another 40% were allowed providing they accepted non-combatant duties.

14 Manawatu Standard, 29 April 1913, p. 3; Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 February 1914, p. 2; Manawatu Times, 24 June 1916, p. 8. See also re Briggs: Evening Post, 1 June 1940, p. 8, ‘Emergency Powers’; 14 June 1940, p. 9, ‘Legislative Council; 20 July 1945, p. 7 ‘Outlawing War’

15 Te Papa website: International relations: World War II: http://sites.tepapa.govt.nz/sliceofheaven/web/html/worldwarii.html

16 ‘Compulsory Military Training in New Zealand’, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompulsorymilitarytraininginNewZealand#CITEREFMcGib bon2000

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Figure 5 A closer view of one of the former huts (Hut No. 32) at the Whitauni Detention Camp, along with three inmates, Kevin Mulrennan, Joe O’Neill and Paddy O'Neill. Photographed between 1942 and 1946.

(Source: Hocken Collection, University of Otago, Library: Asset ID: 7704 http://hockensnapshop.ac.nz/nodes/view/3225 )

Of the remaining 40% whose appeals were dismissed, some reluctantly accepted military service, while around 800 men found themselves designated as ‘military defaulters’. These were the men forced to spend the duration of the war (with no way to anticipate when the war might end) in camps such as that at Whitaunui. Furthermore, whereas other Commonwealth countries sought out alternative forms of service for such men, New Zealand did not. The Appeal Boards that made these decisions, tended to be very conservative and there was no consistency between the decisions of the various Boards. In addition, there was no central agency monitoring these decisions.17

Construction of the various defaulter camps began in late 1941, with the Whitaunui and Paiaka camps receiving their first inmates in June 1942. At that time, Whitaunui received 104 men, while Paiaka received a further 34. Eventually the two camps received a total of around 250 men; this being almost half of the 590 men who were held in detention long-term around New Zealand. Other camps were at Strathmore and Hautu in the central North Island and at smaller camps including a forestry camp at Balmoral in North Canterbury. Detainees were often moved between camps throughout this time. By January 1943 there were 803 men in 13 camps and sub-camps18.

The first batch of detainees at Whitaunui and Paiaka contributed a great deal to the setting up of the two camps, albeit that progress was slow. The huts to be used by the men were built by the Public Works Department. Most were two-man huts measuring 8ft by10ft; however, there were also some 6ft by 8ft single-man huts. The unheated huts were furnished with beds with straw mattresses and a pillow each, along with old army blankets. The huts also had a small table and stool.

17 Margaret Tate, ‘An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946,’ in Manawatū Journal of History, Vol. 12 (2016), forthcoming (unpaginated)

18 http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Hom-c7.html

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

The various buildings left over from the old Whitaunui Flaxmill were also put into use. These became the ablution and administration blocks, a store, a small hospital and a laundry.

In addition, the camp was surrounded by barbed wire fencing, along with power poles from which lights shone down onto the camp. The sight of the bright lights from the camp at night amidst the vast acres of dark paddocks, remained a lifelong memory for one local child, and present-day local resident, Jack Barber.19

The camp, and its operational routine, was intended to be less attractive than military life. Isolation was one of the intended goals. Only a family emergency allowed a detainee access to any leave; while visits by family were supervised and also difficult to achieve logistically in the wartime conditions. The Shannon Railway Station, now a heritage building in its own right, is recognised as having played a significant role in enabling families to visit their loved ones at these camps. Letters were limited and these were also censored, as were reports in magazines if the censor considered them unsuitable. Property owner, Mary Bielski, also understands that detainees were from time-to-time taken into Shannon, to trade goods that they had produced, for items available for sale in the town that were not available at the camp. These men were, however, heavily guarded during these outings.20

While these camps were required to include useful work as a goal for the detainees (such as servicing the camps and growing vegetables), in reality the main complaint was the futility of the work (hoeing weeds) undertaken in the flax fields. A particular sore point was the way the detainees were prevented from doing useful things for the wider community, such as

19 Tate, ‘An Indeterminate Sentence’. Jack Barber was one of Margaret’s sources.

20 Discussion with Mary Bielski, 11 May 2016

growing vegetables for other than the camp’s own use or helping clean up after a large flood in 1943.

Strict discipline inflicted by the camp supervisors upon the detainees for possibly even very minor breaches of camp rules, also caused great resentment. There were apparently no clear checks on decisions made by the camp authorities. The camp did not fit under the ‘Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27th, 1929’21 (also known as the Geneva Convention) that established the rules under which the enemy combatant prisoners of war at Featherston and the enemy alien internees on Somes Island, were held. Those prisoners (and their WWI equivalents) had the consuls of neutral countries appointed under the Convention to take an interest in their welfare. For example, in WWII the Swiss Consul-General watched over those camps, while the New Zealand representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was also actively involved with them.22 However, unlike the inconsistencies experienced with the New Zealand internment camps in WWI, the prisoners held in all three classes of detention facility in WWII were paid for their work, albeit that the payment was minimal.23

Guards were also difficult to recruit and to retain due to the remote locations of the camps and the lack of suitable accommodation for the families of married guards. In addition, those guards who were recruited,

21 The Geneva Convention, 1929: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GenevaConvention%281929%29

22 Mike Nicolaidi, The Featherston Chronicles: A legacy of war (Auckland, 1999). P. 135

23 This was a requirement under the Geneva Convention for POWs and internees during WWII, but the previous Hague Convention with a similar rule, was often ignored on Somes Island during WWI. For example: Val Burr, Somes Island Internment Camp for Enemy Aliens During the First World War: An Historical Enquiry (A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA(Hons.) in History at Massey University, Palmerston North, 1998), pp. 181-187. Nicolaidi (p. 169) states that the commandant of the Featherston POW camp was elsewhere in the camp on 25 February 1943, working out details re wages to be paid to the POWs, when the killings there broke out.

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

frequently had no previous experience in such roles and their unreasonable decisions were known to enflame situations.

A comparable situation made famous in the United States in 1971 is that known as the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’, and this background can also provide an insight into how complex situations might develop in pressure cooker situations like these camps.24 However, ‘guard versus prisoner’ incidents sighted in the course of this study in relation to the New Zealand defaulter camps, in no way resemble the Featherston massacre of 25th February 194325, nor the constant brutality and rule breaches inflicted by the guard staff upon the several hundred internees at the Somes Island Internment Camp during WWI.26

If prisoners at Whitaunui refused the menial tasks they were given, such as weeding the flax (as opposed to planting and cutting it – which they did not get to do), they could be imprisoned in Mt. Crawford Prison or sent to the Hautu camp, which was the primary punishment camp for defaulters. Some men escaped from the camp, with a few going missing for very long periods. When recaptured they were charged and sentenced to imprisonment. One was missing for 435 days; another for 241 days, and one for almost two years.27 One man was recaptured after 466 days on the run, in the vestry of a Palmerston North church moments before he was to marry.28 Another man was arrested in July 1945, 655 days after escaping from Whitaunui. He was imprisoned for three months and he was also

24 Stanford Prison Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanfordprisonexperiment

25 NZ History: Featherston Incident: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/classroom/incident-at­featherston Forty-eight prisoners and one guard were killed in this incident.

26 Val Burr, Somes Island Internment Camp for Enemy Aliens During the First World War. The thesis found that assaults by the guard staff upon the internees was a constant through most of the time the camp existed.

27 Evening Post, 5 September 1944, p. 7, 28 September 1945, p. 6, Press 20 September 1944, p. 7, NZ Herald, 21 September 1945, p. 8

28 Evening Post, 6 March 1945, p. 7

advised that he would still serve his full 655 days in prison after the war ended.29

Yet another Whitaunui escapee was recaptured in November 1945 after 772 days at large. He then learned that although the war was technically over, the formal peace treaty was not yet signed and so the former escapee was now to be held in one of the camps again. Furthermore, when the others were finally released, he was to be transferred to prison to serve the full 772 days that he had previously been free.30

In late November 1945, a Whitaunui camp inmate named Patrick James Hourigan, took a case to the Supreme Court arguing that the war that existed when the regulations came into force in August 1941, had been with Germany and Italy, and that this war had now ended. His sentence in November 1941 had been “for the duration of the present war” under Regulation 44a of the National Service Emergency Regulations. The various legal arguments however, concluded that the war had not yet officially ended and thus Hourigan’s bid for freedom was declined.31

The Whitaunui and Paiaka camps both closed in July 1946, some ten months after the end of hostilities. The final duties of the last prisoners to be released were to demolish the barbed wire fence. However, men had been gradually being released prior to that time. Some sections of the population had become concerned that these men had been in detention for up to four years, while the camps had been expensive to run. The camps were also no longer a deterrent to avoiding military service. Other public pressures had, however, said that these men should remain in the camps until the men serving overseas had returned. In the end, some of these men had remained in these camps even after New Zealand’s actual (former) enemy citizens had been freed. For example, the last internees

29 Evening Post, 25 July 1945, p. 9

30 Evening Post, 15 November 1945, p. 4,

31 Evening Post, 22 November 1945, p. 8, 23 November 1945, p. 9

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

were released from Somes Island in October 194532 and the Japanese prisoners of war from the Featherston Prisoner of War Camp left New Zealand bound for Japan on 30th December 1945.33

Amongst the men held at the Whitaunui camp in the course of the war were members of some well-known families. These included Terence Baxter, son of the aforementioned WWI conscientious objector Archibald Baxter and brother to poet James K. Baxter; and also Rex (Wrexford) Hillary, brother to Sir Edmund Hillary. The impact upon the men held in these defaulter/conscientious objector camps continued long after their release dates. This included the treatment sometimes meted out by classmates to the children of the “conchies” who may have been born long after the war ended.

After the closure, the remains of the Whitaunui camp were dismantled, with buildings, tools, timber etc., being sold locally. The Manawatu Catchment Board also purchased two of the camp’s staff houses from the War Assets Realisation Board in late 1947.

The property was then sold as a ‘rehab farm’ to returned soldier, Horace Edkin, who established a dairy farm there. His original certificate of title (WNPR 19/9) indicates that the purchase occurred in mid-1949.34 The current certificate of title (WN 602/93) was then issued to Edkin in 1953 (for 24.1547 hectares). This already excluded the small block of land (0.1869 hectares) at the front entrance to the property where the two houses once were. The current certificate of title for that piece of land is certificate of title WNC/108, which issued in 1964 to the Manawatu

32 McGill, David, Island of Secrets: Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour (Wellington, 2001), p. 122

33 ‘Featherston Prisoner of War Camp’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featherstonprisonerofwarcamp

34 The current owner of the property, Mary Bielski, has a copy of this original title – and she described it in her email to Margaret Tate dated 16 May 2016.

Catchment Board. In 1965, this piece of land was transferred to Horace Edkin also. The fate of those houses is also unknown.35

In 1973, both properties were transferred into the names of new owners Raymond Russell Bielski, dairy farmer of Shannon, and his wife Mary Louise Bielski. In 1991, the property was transferred into the name of the couple’s company, Foxton Footwear (1983) Ltd., and this name in turn was altered in 1992 to R.R. & M.L. Bielski Ltd. The company remains the official owner of the property.36 Raymond Bielski died in September 2015.

Figure 6 Foundations of an old toilet and shower (?) block – Whitaunui site, 11 May 2016. The detention camp’s accommodation ‘paddock’ is in the background beyond the foundations.

35 Mary Bielski, 11 May 2016; Also, Certificate of Title WNC2/108 for this 1869 square metre property, issued 1964

36 Companies Office: https://www.business.govt.nz/companies R.R. & M.L. Bielski Ltd. (ID 230930)

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Memorials

At present there is no memorial in New Zealand to the story of the conscientious objectors of both world wars. It is noteworthy that there is a memorial at Featherston to the Japanese prisoners of war held (and some killed) there in WWII and also on Matiu/Somes Island to the Italians interned there in WWII. However, like the conscientious objectors, there are also no memorials to the Germans and internees of other nationalities, held in New Zealand during both wars.

In 2013, the Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust37 was set up in Dunedin, with a view to unveiling a memorial there in 2017, in memory of New Zealand’s wartime conscientious objectors.

The new Trust’s patron, 91-year-old Terence Baxter, had spent his war at the Whitaunui Camp.38 In 2014, the Trust announced that it hoped to develop the memorial on a triangle of land in central Dunedin. However, their plans met with strong opposition from the RSA that deemed the site inappropriate, as the street (Anzac Avenue) was named after the soldiers who had fought in the wars. Trees in the street were also planted in memory of those who had fallen, and this link, along with a small area suitable to be a memorial site, had attracted the Trust to the spot.39 Opposition then saw the Trust turn its attention to a site in the Otago

37 Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust: http://www.archibaldbaxtertrust.com/ & Facebook: ‘The Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust’

38 ‘Pacifists also deserving of recognition’, Otago Daily Times, 30 December 2013: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/286794/pacifists-also-deserving-recognition

39 ‘Memorial planned for wartime objectors,’ Newshub, 23 June 2014: http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/memorial-planned-for-wartime-objectors­2014062312#axzz47gaKfjy6 ; also: ‘Objection to Anzac Avenue memorial’, Radio New Zealand: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/247900/objection-to-anzac-avenue­memorial

Museum reserve, which already had a peace memorial. The significance of Dunedin was that Archibald Baxter had been an Otago farmer.40

On Anzac Day 2016, three sculptures of a temporary nature were installed around central Wellington by the group Peace Action Wellington. A petition was then set up that sought to have the Wellington City Council allow a more permanent memorial to the conscientious objectors, to be erected in that city.41

Remains of the Flaxmill and Detention Camp

The little accommodation sheds shown in photos of the camp, stood in what is still a small paddock, immediately in front of the property’s homestead which in turn was built by Horace Edkin after he took over the farm. The present property owner, Mary Bielski, advises that this paddock has never been ploughed over during the time the

property has been in their ownership and she wonders if anything remains from the time, hidden beneath the surface of the paddock.

40 ‘Men of Conscience’, Otago Daily Times, 17 November 2014: http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/323316/men-conscience

41 “ www.change.org petition entitled: ‘A permanent conscientious objector memorial in Wellington’ (April 2016)

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

One of the early photos of the huts also shows a driveway lined with white-painted stones. This area is now part of the driveway that runs alongside the Bielskis’ house toward the old hayshed and beyond.

A small rectangular concrete building foundation, containing two small cubicles, is not far from the former ‘hut paddock’. It appears to be have been a former toilet in one cubicle and either a shower or urinal in the other cubicle. Certainly it had a water supply to it. The original purpose of several other structures is harder to distinguish, and the known presence of large numbers of flaxmillers living on site complicates decision-making over what might have once stood on these sites. One that is alongside an artesian bore, may have been a larger ablution block, or not. Another nearby that immediately overlooks a large open drain that predates the present cowshed layout, is also hard to interpret.

Other old concretework definitely traces to the flaxmill. The present cowshed has an approach race that has been built inside old demolished concrete walls. These old walls even have their steel reinforcing in place. Given the tendency on farms to re-use both old building sites and also their access driveways, this might well be the old flaxmill site. The related cattle race heading from the cowshed, to the site of the flying fox remains, supports this.

The flaxmill’s old scutching shed might well have been on the site of the present old hayshed (which is now used to accommodate livestock; a horse on the day we visited the property). This old timber building, which has now mostly been reclad in roofing iron, stands on a concrete floor. The walls that are still timberclad, are clearly very aged, but perhaps not a century old. Mrs Bielski notes that there were a lot of bricks in this vicinity that are now buried under the surface of the yard adjoining this old shed. This indicates that another structure was also once there, possibly relating to the heating system within the scutching shed, if that was the purpose of whatever building was originally on this site.

Clearer remnants of the flaxmill can be found in the vicinity of the former flying fox site. Until about April 2016, the remains of the 30-ton counterweight supporting the flying fox were still visible, along with some of its wire rope. However, at that time, Horizons built a new stopbank over the top of this portion of the concrete-work. However, the foundations of an engine or pulley block (and possibly related concrete-work) are still present on the river side of the new stopbank. Mrs Bielski also recalls extracting a great deal of old barbed wire from excavations she has made in this vicinity, and possibly some of that was once part of the detention camp’s perimeter fence. Satellite photos of the river in this vicinity suggest corresponding remnants on the other side of the river.

Of the eight cottages built on the property for flaxmill employees in 1914, the former location on the property of six of them is not known at the time of this study. However, the last two, which were sold to the Manawatu Catchment Board after WWII, stood together on the land that is still on a separate title and which fronts the Foxton-Shannon Road. Possibly the others also once stood in this vicinity. The fate of these last two houses is at present unknown.42

In terms of the history of this site, it would be of value to know if any of these cottages and sleeping huts survive somewhere and to be able to acknowledge them.

The nearby former Moutoa School site, along with its hall and its war memorial, has a relationship to the former flaxmill. While the present hall is new, the original one that it replaced traces to a meeting held at the flaxmill in 1912.43 The fact that the former school remained on its site as long as it did, appears to relate in part to the mill’s owners requesting in 1916 that it remain there. Possibly similar influences occurred after a complete

42 Certificate of Title for this piece of land: WN C2/108

43 Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 July 2014, p. 22

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

relocation was agreed to by the Wanganui Education Board in 1919.44 Most likely the presence of the families associated with the mill and especially those living in the eight workers’ cottages, influenced the local community to fight to retain their school. Although it is not known at the time of this study, just when the school closed, it does seem very unlikely that it could have survived the establishment of two detention camps so close to it.

Finally, at least two of the soldiers named on the Moutoa war memorial, were former Whitaunui Flaxmill employees. Given the nature of the prejudice towards the men held at the detention camp, the war memorial is likely to have been quietly regarded as a handy example of the price of ‘freedom’ paid by these earlier local men and that the WWII detainees had chosen not to pay. The opposing view might also have kept all parties grounded.

Refer to pages 100-103 for photos of the remains of the Defaulter’s Camp/Flaxmill.

Acknowledgements

Having both Margaret Tate and the editorial team preparing Volume 12 of the Manawatu Journal of History allow me access to Margaret’s article ‘An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946,’ has been of huge benefit to this report; as has additional material Margaret has subsequently obtained for me to further this particular study of the site. ‘An Indeterminate Sentence’ looks at the impact on the men held at the camps, whereas my report is more clinical. However, it is noteworthy that neither study has included using the more detailed resources that must be available at Archives New Zealand (NZ) and similar depositories, beyond noting the titles of the various items listed on Archives NZ’s ‘Archway’ website.

44 Manawatu Standard, 18 January 1919, p. 2

It was most interesting to have the opportunity to visit Mrs Bielski and her farm and to see the various remnants of the mill and the camp left on the farm. While the history of the various individual remains on the site are usually unclear, they collectively tell the story of both a past industry and also of a social history that even now is often not an entirely comfortable one for many.

I also wish to acknowledge my Masters of Arts thesis on the Somes Island enemy alien internment camp as having contributed to this story. That study included comparative studies of similar wartime detention facilities, both in NZ and overseas. WWI conscientious objector Mark Briggs also featured in a recent study of his former premises in Cuba Street, Palmerston North, as part of the North West Square Heritage Precinct heritage project conducted by Ian Bowman and myself on Palmerston North’s Central Business District.

Finally, I also wish to acknowledge my workmate and friend Dianne Webster, whose father, Basil Charles (‘Beau) Pratt was an inmate at Whitaunui for (she believes) much of WWII. He had been one of five men sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court (in Wellington?) to a defaulters’ camp on 28th January 1942.45 On 11th May 2016 when I visited to check out site complications with my study, Dianne was also able to make what presumably was the first visit to the property by any member of her family since her father was released. It is precisely the near-total lack of knowledge left with the people most affected by camps such as this, long after the ex-inmate has passed away, that makes a seemingly ordinary collection of paddocks with a few random bits of concrete lying about in some of them, all the more important in the present day.

45 Evening Post, 28 January 2016, p. 6

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Figure 8 This photo shows the layout of the various remains of the Whitaunui Flaxmill and the Whitaunui Detention Camp. Note that the camp did not extend across the boundary fence marked in the photo. The original aerial photo from 2011 also shows the flying fox’s foundations on the other side of the river. However, it is possible that the stopbanks Horizons installed in early 2016 might also have affected those remains, as they did to the ones on this side of the river. The detention camp also used the flying fox. (Source: A satellite image from the Horowhenua District Council’s website)

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Figure 10 Foundations of an old toilet and shower (?) block – Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016. The detention camp’s accommodation ‘paddock’ is in the background beyond the foundations.

Figure 11 Foundations of an old toilet and shower (?) block – Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016. The detention camp’s accommodation ‘paddock’ is in the background beyond the foundations.

Figure 9 A concrete ‘dam wall’ (?) - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016.

Figure 12 Foundations #1: A long rectangular building alongside a drain that leads to a small dam that pre-dates the cowshed. Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Figure 13 Old concrete foundations with reinforcing steel protruding from them, now used as a cowshed race, alongside the present cowshed. It is possible that they are part of a previous cowshed or something re-used from the flaxmill days. Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016.

Figure 14 Part of the flying fox system. Both of these concrete blocks have four steel rods protruding from them suggesting that they once carried an engine and/or winch associated with the flying fox. A steam winch was employed at the flaxmill for this purpose - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016

Figure 15 Old and new concretework that now forms a cowshed race. The old wall includes protruding steel reinforcing. The original building possible relates to the flaxmill. The old shed detailed below, is in the distance - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016

Figure 16 One of the above two concrete foundation blocks – and horseshoes, to indicate the size - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Figure 17 An old shed with a concrete floor that may have an association to the flaxmill and/or the scutching shed. The yard where the horse is, once had a lot of broken bricks scattered around it, suggesting something that needed to be fire-resistant - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016	Figure 19 One of the three bays inside the old shed. This is the only one (now) lined with timber, much like a loose box might be, but it is not possible to know when the lining was installed - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016
Figure 18 The interior of the old shed, showing an original wall. It is not clear if it was built as a hayshed or as a mill building, but evidently ventilation was a necessity for it - Whitaunui site, 11th May 2016

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Description

The farm in which the former camp and flaxmill were located has archaeological evidence of a number of structures of which their functions are unknown. These comprise concrete and brick foundations in several widely spread out locations. The foundations shown in the photographs above of this site include what was possibly a toilet and shower block, although further research will need to be carried out for any definitive information.

Setting

The main site of the camp is set well back from the Foxton-Shannon Road with a long straight driveway from the road almost to the Manawatu River, which is the northern boundary of the farm. The farm is comprised of large, flat, open paddocks with the house three quarters of the way down the drive towards the river. The house is set in large trees, with few other trees on the property. The building foundations are located to the west and north-west of the house.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

This site has high national significance for demonstrating high historical, social, setting/group and archaeological values.

When assessed against Council’s Thematic Framework the Whitaunui Military Defaulter’s Camp is in the Post-Contact Group and is considered to be representative of the following themes and subthemes:

Theme/s	Subtheme/s
	Industry		Flaxmill
	Military/defence		War memorial

Values

The site has high historic and social values as the former Whitaunui Military Defaulters’ Camp established in 1942; the larger of two such camps built locally which together accommodated up to 250 men throughout the war period. There were a number of other smaller camps in the central North Island and another camp in North Canterbury, with a total of 13 camps and sub-camps throughout New Zealand.

A well known internee was Terence Baxter, whose father, Archibald Baxter, was a well known conscientious objector from WWI and whose brother was James K. Baxter, one of New Zealand’s most famous poets. James wrote poems about the camp.

The camps were established to house conscientious objectors who were interned during the war. Their beliefs against war were based on Christian, moral or political grounds. Their incarceration, menial jobs and their release 10 months after the end of the war reflected the punitive attitude of the government and general populace of the time. They were considered to be “cowards and slackers” and their treatment was worse than other allies46. To some extent this antagonism continues today with hostility towards the erection of any memorial to conscientious objectors, even to those of WWI. This is despite memorials having been erected to prisoners of war of New Zealand’s enemies at the time.

The site has high historical values as the location of the Whitaunui Flaxmill operating from 1906 to 1937, which was one of the largest mills in the area, with some of its buildings used in the camp. A local flax worker and later a member of the Legislative Chamber, Mark Briggs had been a conscientious objector in WWI and was opposed to the establishment of the Whitaunui camp. He, Baxter and others had been brutally treated throughout WWI for their views and to break their resolve.

46 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/second-world-war-at-home/in-dissent

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

The site has high setting/group and archaeological values as the last remaining evidence of one of five military defaulters’ camps as well as the flaxmill, of which a number of buildings were used for camp facilities.

Evidence of the flying fox structure to transport flax across the river has recently been buried in stop bank works. This may have technological values, but having been buried, it is difficult to assess.

Measure

The site comprises foundation remnants and so has little authenticity and integrity but very high rarity as it is possibly the only remaining physical evidence of conscientious objectors camps in New Zealand.

RECOMMENDATION FOR EXTENT OF LISTING

It is recommended that the Whitaunui Military Defaulter’s Camp is listed as site in Schedule 2 of the District Plan.

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY

Criteria	Level	Criteria	Level
Historic	H	Setting/group	H
Social	H	Archaeological	H*
Architectural		Maori cultural
Technological/ Scientific	?
Significance	National	Regional	Local
Recommended	Site

* An archaeological investigation has not been undertaken as part of the assessment of this property; it is likely that it may have archaeological values given that the site is associated with pre-1900 human activity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bowman, Ian, & Burr, Val, North West Square Heritage Precinct (Palmerston North City Council, 2010) - ‘262 Cuba Street – Coo-ee Drycleaners’ http://www.pncc.govt.nz/news-events-and­culture/about/heritage-buildings/262-cuba-street-cooee-dry-cleaners/

Burr, Val, Somes Island Internment Camp for Enemy Aliens During the First World War: An Historical Enquiry (A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History with Honours at Massey University, Palmerston North, 1998)

Grant, David, Out in the Cold: Pacifists and Conscientious Objectors during World War II (Auckland, 1986)

Grant, David, ‘Briggs, Mark 1884-1965,’ in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Volume Three 1901-1920’ (Auckland, 1996), pp. 66-67

Horowhenua District Council: Certificates of Title

Law, Marjorie D., From Bush & Swamp: The Centenary of Shannon 1887- 1987 (Palmerston North, 1987)

Nicolaidi, Mike, The Featherston Chronicles: A legacy of war (Auckland, 1999)

Tate, Margaret, ‘Wire Happy: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946.’ A presentation given on 20 April 2016 at the Palmerston North Public

Library, as part of the ‘Anzac 2016’ programme

Tate, Margaret, 'An Indeterminate Sentence: The Shannon Objector Camps 1942-1946', in Manawatū Journal of History, Vol. 12 (2016), forthcoming.

Archives New Zealand website: https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ : search word “Defaulters”

The Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust website: http://www.archibaldbaxtertrust.com/

Technical Assessments of Buildings, Structures and Sites

Online Sources: Papers Past (Bush Advocate, Evening Post, Horowhenua Chronicle, Manawatu Standard, NZ Herald, Press); other online media (Otago Daily Times, Newshub, Radio NZ); other online sources: Change.org; Companies Office; Hocken Collection, University of Otago, Library; Horowhenua Kete; NZhistory.net.nz; Te Papa website; Wikipedia; ‘Writing by Renee: A sort of peer-reviewed journal’: https://reneejg.net/ (various as per footnotes)

Compiled by Val Burr and Ian Bowman in August 2016.

Identification