Mackay served seven years in prison and his name was erased from the city's civic monuments, while Cresswell (himself homosexual) was praised as a "wholesome-minded young man". Mackay's name was restored to the foundation stone of the Sarjeant Gallery in 1985.
The Whanganui River catchment is seen as a sacred area to M?ori, and the Whanganui region is still seen as a focal point for any resentment over land ownership. In 1995, Moutoa Gardens in Wanganui, known to local M?ori as Pakaitore, were occupied for 79 days in a mainly peaceful protest by the Whanganui iwi over land claims.
Wanganui was the site of the New Zealand Police Law Enforcement System (LES) from 1976 to 1995. An early Sperry mainframe computer based intelligence and data management system, it was known colloquially as the "Wanganui Computer". The data centre housing the LES was subject to New Zealand's highest profile suicide bombing in 1982 when anarchist Neil Roberts detonated a gelignite bomb in the entry foyer. Roberts was the only casualty of the bombing.
Whanganui is the only New Zealand city/district to ban gang insignia and give police new powers to control gangs. Legislation was passed through Parliament in May 2009. The bill became known as 'Laws' Law' after the previous mayor who championed the legislation, Michael Laws, although it was steered through Parliament by local MP Chester Borrows.
On 29 August 2012, Stewart Murray Wilson, dubbed the "Beast of Blenheim" was released from prison to be reintegrated to society. He is currently living in a state house on prison grounds, with strict parole conditions.
The name
Wh?ng? nui means big bay or big harbour. Europeans called it Petre (pronounced Peter), after Lord Petre, an officer of the New Zealand Company, but the name did not persist.
Wanganui or Whanganui?
In the local dialect, M?ori pronounce the phoneme wh as [?w], a w combined with a glottal stop, and the name as
