Built Heritage Inventory Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 Register Item Number: 331
Building Type: Residential Commercial Industrial Recreation Institutional Agriculture Other
Significance: Archaeological Architectural Historic Scientific Technological Cultural
Thematic Context Early Settlement Residential Industry Agricultural Commerce Transport Civic/Admin Health Education Religion Recreation Community Location: 7-mile peg at #478 SH4 Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga Memorials (Upokongaro School), and 8-mile peg List Number: Military at #636 SH4, Whanganui
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339
Built Heritage Inventory
Physical Description: Small painted concrete markers with the either 7 or 8 marking the 7 and 8 mile mark from Whanganui. Two low-set concrete posts, a mile apart, marked only by each’s relevant number (i.e. “7” or “8”). The 8-mile peg appears to have been painted white in the recent past.
Other known names: “Milestone” Current Use: Mile marker, More or less ‘in situ’ historic artefact Former Uses: Distance indicator Heritage Status: District Plan Class: Class C, 2013, marker 7 only Architectural Style: Mile marker Date of Construction: 1860s-1870s Materials: Painted concrete Registered owner: Legal Description: History: The use of milestones to indicate distance from a designated commencement point dates from the road builders of the Roman Empire. Such markers were not necessarily made of stone and the words used to identify them varied.1 For example, in the old Wanganui newspapers (and probably throughout New Zealand) these “milestones” were typically referred to as “mile pegs” – such as the “7-mile peg”, “40-mile peg” and so on. The commencement point for those on State Highway 4 was at the eastern end of the Wanganui Town (now ‘Whanganui City’) Bridge.2
In the days before speedometers and GPS, mile pegs were used to explain where a bridge might be on a given length of rural road, or where a road- working contract might start or end. For instance, some accident might have occurred ‘near the 3-mile peg’, or a roading contract might run ‘from the 14-mile peg to the 15-mile peg.’ They might indicate approximately where someone lived, or perhaps where something had been lost or last seen. They also gave weary travellers something to watch out for as they calculated how far they had come – and how far they had left to go before they reached their destination.
State Highway 4, the road through Upokongaro where these particular mile pegs are, was planned from the early days as Wanganui’s route to Taupo and beyond
1 Wikipedia – mile stones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milestone 2 Email, 24 January 2012: Clive Aim, Wanganui District Council, to Wendy Turvey, Opus.
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339
Built Heritage Inventory
– although for the first decades after a track was eventually selected and created, this was restricted to horse riders, pack horses, or intrepid pedestrians. For example, in 1872, development of such a road was (briefly) promoted with some urgency in anticipation of a goldfield being developed in Taupo.3 However, both the gold rush and the hoped-for easy route to it soon proved to be an illusion.
European settlement in the Upokongaro area began in the 1850s, and the town’s first hotel being opened in 1866. 4 The Upokongaro ferry across the Whanganui River began in 1867,5 and therefore these early mile pegs in the route might date to around that time. Furthermore, the surveyor G.F. Allen surveyed the Upokongaro Block in 1866 and the civil engineer and surveyor H.C. Field laid off a road in the Upokongaro Valley between 1872 and 18766 – and it is also likely that one or both of these surveyors played a role in the origins of these mile pegs. Also noteworthy were contracts in the early 1870s being offered for tender to build various sections of the ‘Wanganui and Taupo Horse Road’7, and it is likely that mile pegs will have been installed along the route around that time. The story of the extremely slow - and both politically and geographically challenged - development of this road is covered in Chapter 14 (‘Push for the Interior: The Parapara Story’) of the book From Sand to Papa.8
The 7-mile peg – which is located against the front boundary fence of Upokongaro School along with its own little interpretation sign – does have a specific place in local history. The Wanganui Herald of 4 June 1897 (p, 3) described the Wanganui & West Coast Cash Cycling Club’s road race to Upokongaro and back, which had occurred the previous day. Nine cyclists set off from Whanganui and five completed the journey. The winning time was 45 minutes, 27 seconds “for the fourteen miles (exact from peg to peg) is an excellent one and will take some beating.”
3 Wanganui Herald, 27 April 1872, p. 2. Wanganui Chronicle, 27 October 1876, p. 2 ‘The Taupo Road’ 4 Wendy Pettigrew, St Mary’s Upokongaro: The Church by the River, (Wanganui, 2005), pp. 4-5 5 Rex H. Voelkerling & Kevin L. Stewart, From Sand to Papa: a history of the Wanganui County, (Wanganui, 1986), p. 118 6 Wanganui Chronicle, 2 November 1881, p. 2 7 For example: Wanganui Herald, 8 March 1873, p. 3, 17 July 1873, p. 3, 8 November 1873, p. 2; Wanganui Chronicle, 25 February 1874, p. 3, and Evening Post, 6 January 1875, p. 5. These tender notices cover Contracts 6 to 9 on the Wanganui to Taupo Horse Road, all being around five miles in length. 8 Voelkerling & Stewart, pp. 151-160
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339
Built Heritage Inventory
An article on “milestones” by Athol Kirk, was published in 1988 in the Whanganui Historical Society’s magazine, Historical Record, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 21. He wrote that: “Recently the roadmen on the Parapara Highway have brought attention to … milestones (there) by painting those still in existence. The 7 mile stone at Upokongaro has been unnoticed by passing motorists up till now, but with its coat of white paint it is now most noticeable. The 13 milestone was refurbished and the Historic Places Trust has placed a plaque at its base explaining its origin.”
Kirk then went on to explain that the 3-mile peg on the Rapanui Road at Kai Iwi had recently disappeared (i.e. in 1988), and that local residents became upset after discovering that one of their five historic mile pegs had vanished. It was in due course tracked down in the County Yard and arrangements were made to replace it. The Historic Places Trust was then intending to resite all five of Rapanui Road’s mile pegs against nearby boundary fences to protect them, as well as painting them white, with the numbers themselves being painted black so that they would be more prominent.
The 7-mile peg, against the front fence of Upokongaro School, has now returned to a ‘natural’ concrete appearance. It is marked by an interpretation board (placed there by the Wanganui Regional Committee of the NZ Historic Places Trust) that reads: “During the 1880’s a daily horse-coach service to Upokongaro from Wanganui was started. This concrete marker is a survivor of the early transport days and is seven miles (11.2 km) distance from the Wanganui City Bridge (1871).”
The 8-mile peg is alongside a farm entrance and letterbox, and appears, due to a coat of white paint in the not too distant past, to be ‘cared for’. However, it is no longer in its original location, as that section of road has been significantly realigned over the years.9 The present circumstances of the 13-mile peg referred to (above) by Athol Kirk in 1988, has not been researched.
Architect/Designer: Unknown History of changes: Actual locations may now be incorrect due to road realignments.
9 Email, 24 January 2012: Clive Aim, Wanganui District Council, to Wendy Turvey, Opus.
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339
Built Heritage Inventory
Date Period: The date is uncertain but likely to be late 1860’s-1870’s.
Rarity / Special Features: Milestone Integrity: Substantially intact. markers are not particularly rare but they do add value and interest to the stories of growth and development.
Representativeness: Common form Context/Group Value: The milestones of milestones. add context to the growth patterns and development of roading networks.
Diversity (Form and Features): Fragility / Vulnerability: NZTA on State Highways tend to try to maintain the mile pegs.
Summary of Significance: Archaeological Qualities Provided these are the original milestones they may be considered under the Historic Places Act 1993 to have archaeological value.
Historic Qualities The milestones are a good indicator of historic development of the town. It is also interesting to note that the surveyor/civil engineer may have been HC Field a prominent professional in the town.
Reference Source: Kirk, Athol, ‘Milestones’ in Historical Record, Vol. 19, No. 2, p. 21 (Whanganui Historical Society, 1988)
Pettigrew, Wendy, St Mary’s Upokongaro: The Church by the River, (Wanganui, 2005)
Voelkerling, Rex H., & Stewart, Kevin L., From Sand to Papa: a history of the Wanganui County, (Wanganui, 1986).
Also newspapers and online articles as referred to in the footnotes.
Associated Pictures:
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339
Built Heritage Inventory
Date of Survey: 2012 Prepared by: Ian Bowman and Val Burr
Milestones 7 and 8 on State Highway 4 zxy339