Dixon Street (Ōākura)

Sergeant Dixon was placed under arrest on 7 April 1864 for insubordinate conduct while on duty, and creating a disturbance in camp.  The insubordination consisted of "throwing down his arms and crying out he would serve no more until he had received the whole of his pay."   

In September 1864, a cricket match was played between the Ōākura team, captained by Frank Mace, and the team from Poutoko Redoubt.  Sergeant Dixon played for the Ōākura team.  Batting, Dixon was out for a duck in each innings.  As a bowler he excelled, taking seven wickets an innings.  The match was won by Ōākura by a single run. Poutoko won the return match played in December.  In that match, Dixon showed his skill as a batsman, scoring 13 and 23 runs.  He took 11 wickets in the game.

The eponymous Dixon of Dixon Street is most likely to be Manley Dixon, a farmer of Tataraimaka.  His homestead was burned in the 1860-61 conflict. Before the Wars, he was on the Jurors List from 1855. His wife died in August 1860. His name appears on the Taranaki Volunteers quarterly pay list as a private for three days in April before his promotion to corporal on 4 April 1861.  He was given leave to go to Nelson in October 1861.  A letter addressed to him remained unclaimed at the post office in New Plymouth in the quarter ended December 1861.

More significantly for the naming of Dixon Street, Manley Dixon served on the Board of Road Commissioners for the district in 1858, approving works in the Ōākura area.

It would be a nice concurrence if Manley Dixon were the mighty bowling sergeant in the Ōākura team. 

Colonel Henry James Warre painted a watercolour titled 'Cricket at Taranaki Dec. 11, 1864'.  The image is available online, courtesy of the National Library of Australia. If 11 December is the date of the painting rather than the date of the event, perhaps the bowler we see depicted is the mighty Sergeant Dixon himself.

Manley Dixon died aged 80 years, and was buried 19 August 1905 at Te Hēnui cemetery.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.