TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

Northern Advocate, 7 June 1933, Page 2

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

GENEROUS GIFT OF MAORI CHIEF.

Mr James Cowan, celebrated authority on the Maori Race, in a handsome, illustrated booklet, specially written for The Texas Company (Australasia) Limited, mentions the gift of Tongariro National Park to the Crown. In. his description of this graceful act on the part of the great Maori Chief, Te Heuliou Tukino, Mr Cowan says: — “When the lands of the Taupo County were being passed through the Native Land Court at Taupo township in 1886, for the purpose of settling the tribal titles to the various blocks, the old chief Te Heuheu was much concerned as to the future disposal of the great volcanic mountains so closely associated with his family history, the repository of his warrior fatlier’s bones, the mountains linked to his name and his ‘mama’ —authority,. P restige, influence —in clan religion,, history, legend and poem. He did not wish to see them sold and passed into alien hands. His friend, Air L. At. Grace, then AI.H.R. for Tauranga in Parliament, suggested that he should make over the mountains —which were by general consent his own lands—to the Crown as a .perpetual possession of the nation, Fakeha and Alaori. This proposal relieved the old man’s anxiety; he gladly agreed, and in the following year the nucleus of the Tongariro National Park came into being, “The name of Te Hcuheu is borne by the northern fieak of Alt. Ruapehu. This peak Te Heulicn is the most beautiful picture in the whole of the park, fitting memorial to a great man of an ancient race. ”

A copy of the “Book of the Maori Chiefs,” from which the extract is made, has recently come into our possession. It is of undoubted interest to every New Zealander because it contains an account of six of the leading chieftains and many interesting incidents of the early colonisatio of the Dominion. A limited edition only has been printed, but wo understand that it can be obtained on application to the head office of the Texas Company (Australasia) Limited, Wellington, and by forwarding threepence in stamps to cover handling.