Recognition Of Journeys Of Early Explorers

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29268, 28 July 1960, Page 21

Recognition Of Journeys Of Early Explorers

Suitable rock cairns, plaques, or other markers commemorating the pioneering journeys of early explorers in New Zealand will eventually be established at strategic places along their routes if the suggestion of Mr John Pascoe, secretary of the Historic PlacS Trust, and a noted climber and writer, is followed.

In an article in the annual report of the trust, entitled “Marking Explorers’ Routes,” he deals with the many amazing journeys of exploration of the country by both Maori and pakeha which should be prominently marked to draw attention to the pioneers' trail-blazing feats.

Considerable importance is attached by Mr Pascoe to commemorating the early exploits of explorers in the South Island, who penetrated previously unknown passes through the mountains, some of which have since become strategic road routes. In July, 1956, within a year of its initial meeting, the trust prepared certain guiding principles for preserving, marking, and recording, said Mr Pascoe’s article. One recommendation was that “tracks of outstanding historical significance, Maori and pakeha, could be marked at strategic points such as mountain passes or river crossings.”

“Because so many more pakeha explorers in the South Island had to overcome, largely without Maori aid, the natural obstacles of mountains, glaciers, rivers, and gorges, their journeys have considerable significance,” said Mr Pascoe. “The truly historical explorations need to be marked but it will take some time to achieve even a part of this work. Perhaps the most accessible sites could have first claim, although accessibility should not be the only criterion.” Canterbury Exploration Dealing with Canterbury exploration, Mr Pascoe says that the first complete trans-alpine crossing, made in 1857 by an expedition led by Harper from the Hurunui, by way of Lake Sumner to the Teremakau river in Westland, should be commemorated. A site at the roadhead at Lake Sumner could be found for a plaque for this route, but any inscription should also take into account the key situation of the pass as a Maori trans-alpine route, says the article. “The discovery of Arthur’s Pass in 1864 has been marked by a noble rock cairn naming Arthur Dudley Dobson. Samuel Butler’s work in the Rangitata and Rakaia valleys in 1881 was important for its extension of sheep country boundaries, but his main divide pass from the Rakaia to Hokitika was not crossed until 1863 when Jacob Lauper, a Swiss, led Henpr Whitcombe, a surveyor. The Whitcombe Pass is unmarked. “The Brunner exploration of 1846-48 from Nelson to below Paringa, in South Westland, and back, the longest single journey of all. has but one marker sited on the island Mautapu in the

Grey river and threatened by an unsightly water pipe,” said the article. It said that the BrunnerHeaphy expedition from Nelson to Arahura in 1846 was unmarked, and that the Buller gorge should be marked, possibly at the Inangahua junction, as part of the route taken by Brunner, his Maori guide, E Kehu, and his other Maoris. Lewis Paas "The explorations of Lewis, Mating. Stuart, Travers, and Rochfort in the Lewis Pass area are under consideration, and as a stock route the Amuri pass could be marked at the Boyle-Doubtful confluence close to the Lewis Pass road. “A plaque could well be sited on the Lindis Pass to commem. orate J. T. Thomson’s 1857 expedition to the Waitaki valley, over the pass, to Lake Hawea, which was necessary for the pastoral development of the Otago province,’” said Mr Pascoe’s article. “The advent of the Haast Pass road highlights the need for a marker on its summit to commemorate the Maoris who discovered it, Cameron, a prospector, who is likely to have been the first European, to cross it, and Sir Julius von Haast, who has been credited with the first complete crossing from Lake Wanaka to the West Coast. “The rain forest and glaciated gorges made travel very difficult in South Westland, whose explorers include the gold prospectors Caples and Barrington, the geologist Hector, the wanderer Charles Douglas, and the nameless men who drowned in the rivers without record or requiem,” said the article. “A start could be made with plaques for Barrington at Queenstown and Douglas at the Waiatoto bridge, as both places, were the starting point and end of major journeys of endurance and hardship.”* Mr Pascoe’s article also cites the explorations of Mackenzie, Murrell, Sutherland, McKinnon, Grave, Talbot, and others in Southland as worthy of recognition. Once some of the overland journeys have been marked, Mr Pascoe considers there is scope for commemorating other forms of exploration, including first ascents of major peaks such as Cook, Tasman, and Eamslaw.