THE ASCENT OF TONGARIRO.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3267, 21 December 1881, Page 2

THE ASCENT OF TONGARIRO.

[To the Editor of the Daily Te-egba-K.J Ma, — My attention was called to a letter in this day's Telegraph written by a Mr Wilkinson, wherein he states that the account written by your Taupo correspondent of my ascent to the volcano of Auruhoe is not correct. I have not the pleasure of knowing your correspondent, neither have I any desire to post myself j as his champion ; I merely wish to remove the stigma of untruth with which he is dubbed, and to state for the information of this surveyor that there is no active volcanoe on Tongariro, and that neither Sir George Grey nor several others made tbe ascent to the volcano of Auruboe (which is the correct name for the so-called volcano of Tongariro), and that I am the first pakeha whom the natives permitted to make the ascent. Mr Bid well, I believe, ascended Auruhoe in 1839 (1869?) without permission, but did not go into the interior of the cone, and does not give the altitudte>_Cr Connelly, an American artist, made an to ascend to tbe crater some years ago, but was captured by the catives and nuded ; be lost ten horses and all equipments, and I believe the New Zealand Government took some action to have them returned. 1 learned also that a photographer from Napier ascended Auruhoe some years ago, and be, also, was captured by the -natives, and lost everything he had with him. The ascent to the summit of Tongariro may have been made by Sir G. Grey, and several others, but not the volcano of Auruhoe. There is an extinct crater on the summit of Tongariro, several steam-boles and hot springs, but no active volcano. I made very careful observations during my ascent to the volcano, and measured the altitude by an aneroid (made by Barker 1 and Son, London) from tbe summit of the cone, which registered 7650 feet above tbe sea level. lam surprised that one who presumes to know so much about the »olcano does not yet know the name of it.—l am, &c, D. Manson. Criterion Hotel, December 20, 1881.