HISTORY OF THE TAMAKI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19148, 14 October 1925, Page 15

HISTORY OF THE TAMAKI.

MAORI AND EUROPEAN. ' DEVELOPMENT BY RAILWAY. The progress of the eastern railway outlet has recently directed attention anew to the TamaM Isthmus. It will be brought very much closer to Auckland by the improved means of transport, the want of which has hitherto condemned it to a neglect which it did not deserve. The Tamaki is a place with a history. To the Maori it was an indispensable avenue of communication between north and south. Wayfarers from the north used to travel down the east coast as far as the Wa temata, use the isthmus at Tamaki as a portage place, convey their canoes to the Mannkau, and thus penetrate to the heart of the North Island by way of the Waifcato. Tamaki, however, was not only a traffic route. It was for long the headquarters of the tribes living on and about the site of Auckland City. It is precisely the class of country that would appeal to the Maori. This is proved by the number of times it was fought over and lost or won. So desirable was the area, and so often the bone of contention between warring tribes, that it became known to the Maori as " Tamaki ox a hundred lovers." If some of those who were associated •with the first- Governor of New Zealand had had their way, Tamaki would have teen chosen as the site of Auckland. Captain Hobson over-ruled them and decided to place his capital on the southern shores of the Waitemata, where the City of Auckland has since grown. At the same time he selected for himself a piece of land at the Tamaki to be his own farm. It. so happens that a portion of what Captain Hobson intended to be his New Zealand estate has become very well known to Aucklariders of recent years as Cou.-t's Model Farm, where there was established the herd cf pedigree Hoistein cattle, which gained so great a reputation throughout the Dominion. This piece of land, part of historic Tamaki, and part of Captain Hobson's farm, has recently been subdivided, as part of the general movement for the extension of Auckland south and east. Being at Tamaki it is unusually well situated for the purpose. This is the Tamaki Heights Garden Suburb, which will be found a worthy development, of -i isitc uinrjuo id. its natural advantages.