Akaroa Green Point

The monument, designed by a Christchurch architect, S.C. Farr, who had been an early settler of Akaroa, was unveiled in June 1898, before a crowd of around 2,000. The decision to erect a monument had been made when Akaroa considered how it could mark Queen Victoria’s 60th Jubilee in 1897. A small reserve around the monument was gazetted in 1926. The original inscription on the monument stated that sovereignty over the South Island had been proclaimed on the site in 1840. Some time after 1927-28, the inscription was altered to state, correctly, that what took place on 11 August 1840 was a demonstration of British sovereignty over the South Island, which had been proclaimed elsewhere some months earlier.