After several months of trying to untangle a rigging problem with the Te Maiki (Flagstaff Hill) flagpole at Russell, the Department of Conservation has hired an expert to sort it out.
But damage caused to the halyard system when protesters flew a flag at Te Maiki last winter won't be fixed
in time for the historic flagpole to be used on Waitangi Day, next Tuesday.
DOC community relations ranger Pauline Moretti said solutions to the problem had been explored for a while, but the damage was "more complex than meets the eye" and more investigations were needed before a new system was installed.
"We have to get a system that's secure so people can't come off the street and put a flag up."
Ms Moretti said a flagpole specialist had now been hired to provide options for the best rigging.
Flags are usually flown at Te Maiki 11days a year in recognition of important dates such as the anniversaries of the declaration of independence signed by the Confederation of United Tribes in 1835, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, battles between Maori and British troops in the North in 1845-1846, and the deaths of chiefs Hone Heke and Kawiti.
Heke provided the original flagpole to fly a United Tribes flag. He felled it and its replacements four times in 1844-45, rejecting the Union Jack as a symbol of British power over Maori.
After the 1845 Battle of Kororareka, when the final felling of the flagpole took place, Te Maiki was without a flagpole until 1858, when Kawiti's son Maihi Paraone donated a tree for its replacement.
It took 400 men to carry the tree up Te Maiki via Wellington St and erect it. Paraone named the flagpole Te Whakakotahitanga o nga iwi (the unification of the two races).
The current flagpole - consisting of a section of Te Whakakotahitanga set on a steel pole base with a fibreglass sleeve on top to prevent lightning conduction - has been refurbished several times over the past 149 years.
