Arthur's Stone, located near Kerikeri, is recognised as New Zealand's earliest monument to a Pākehā (European).
[1] It was erected in November 1840, by Reverend Richard Taylor in memory of his 10-year-old son Arthur who died at the site as a result of a fall from a horse.
Taylor wrote an account in his journal of the memorial being erected stating he had returned that same evening "having waited to see a basaltic column of 7½ feet put up on the spot where poor Arthur met his death.
The following day Taylor and a person named Steele returned to the site whitewashed the stone, cleared a circle around its base and planted it with clover.
[3] Ten-year-old Arthur Taylor was accompanying his father Reverend Richard Taylor from Kerikeri to Waimate to meet his mother, when according to a contemporary report, the horse he was riding was startled by a touch of a switch and bolted, causing Arthur to fall from the saddle and being dragged by the stirrup resulting in his death on October 12, 1840.