MAORILAND'S OLDEST CITY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3334, 16 August 1926, Page 8

MAORILAND'S OLDEST CITY.

One hundred years ago Wanganui, a a prospective eilv, uas undreamed ot

.'■■'S ' me chronicle. But even then the mime of the place was old. and stepped in emu nries of memories. Jlmv

Wanganui rotainod its ancient Maori Villi', ii) spite of ;ni ellort to call flie place Petiv. was doserhed by Mr 1!. If nmol in an address to the Wanganui Rotary Chib. “Wanganui is the oldest town we have in -New Zealand. M said Mr BurM't, in pointing out that, lone be Cure the coming o) the pakeha, Wanganui had been an important and populous nadive centre. i pun the hill now crowned by the Sarjeant Gallery lay that relined structure's barbaric amithesis, a Maori pah called Biikengahn “SandlK Hill.”

la the Maori language Wanganui a> a common enough term, signilvinr

“wide harbor.” It was also applied i, Wellington and Napier. ,Varner being known as W anganni-Ohntn. *.• i(: these names had hmg sunken inlo obscurity.

so that Wanganui now held almost tin ‘■'.elusive rights i.o one of the oldest and most picturesque Mauri names. I racing tile processes of settlement. Mr Burnet told low a party of five, including a trader in smoked heads, lo name Rowe. another man named Power, a negro, and two seamen, came to Wanganui in I SB I. They landed at

the Landguard Bluff, and were promptly butchered by the Maoris. Power alone escaping, power returned later, and until his death was employed as a storeman by Taylor and Watt, who had a store on Taupe Quay. The Wanganui territory, 83,000 acres, which included the site of the city, but excluded' certain extensive reservations for the Maoris, was purchased by Sir Donald McLean for ,01000.