The Massey Memorial is the mausoleum

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 of New Zealand Prime Minister

Prime Minister of New Zealand

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...

 William Massey

William Massey

William Ferguson Massey, often known as Bill Massey or "Farmer Bill" served as the 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1912 to 1925, and was the founder of the Reform Party. He is widely considered to have been one of the more skilled politicians of his time, and was known for the particular...

. It is located on Point Halswell on the Miramar Peninsula

Miramar Peninsula

The Miramar Peninsula is a peninsula at the southeastern end of the city of Wellington, New Zealand.The peninsula is 800 hectares and contains the suburbs of Miramar, Maupuia, Strathmore and Seatoun...

, Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

History

William Massey was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1912 to 1925, when he died in office. After his death parliament passed the Massey Burial-ground Act, which allocated 0.8 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s of land for use as a burial ground for Massey and his widow, Christina Massey. The land on Point Halswell had been used for defence purposes during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and had lain unused since then. A fort on the site was converted into a crypt and a gun-pit lined with marble to serve as a vault. The rest of the memorial was completed in 1930 at a cost of £15,000, most of which was raised by public subscription.

Design

The memorial was designed by established memorial designer Samuel Hurst Seager in conjunction with Auckland architects Gummer and Ford

Gummer and Ford

Gummer and Ford was an architectural firm founded in 1923 in Auckland, New Zealand by William John Gummer and C. Reginald Ford. It was among the country's best-regarded architectural firm of the first half of the 20th century, designing numerous iconic buildings, including the former National Art...

. It is constructed from Kairuru marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 with a base of Coromandel

Coromandel Peninsula

The Coromandel Peninsula lies in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Waikato Region and Thames-Coromandel District and extends 85 kilometres north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier to protect the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the west...

 granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

. The main feature is a semicircle of seven marble columns, with a marble walk leading to the entrance of the crypt. The memorial traces the design of the original fort on the site, with the dome in the centre of the memorial marking the position of a gun pit.

In 1984 it was registered as a Category I Historic Place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...

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