MOUNTAIN TAPU

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3803, 2 September 1936, Page 5

MOUNTAIN TAPU

THE CONE OF KAKEPUKU. “A TEMPLE OF THE GODS.” “The ancient mountain ... is too fine and sacred a place to be reduced to the level of petrol fumed traffic with its' vulgarising accompaniments,” writes Mr James Cowan, the well known New Zealand historian and authority on Maori lore in last night's Auckland Star, when referring to the proposal to construct .a motor road to the top of Kakepuku. We quote: A proposal has been made at Te Awamutu, headed by the Mayor, that a motor road should be made to ths top of Mount Kakepuku so that visit ors could enjoy the view from the top. This is amongst various suggestions for the benefit of tourists and other motorists. It is a natural impulse, no doubt —“There’s a high place, let’s get to the top of it.” The beautiful symmetrical volcanic cone of -Kakepuku is a commanding feature in the "Waipa landscape, and as far back as the days of Dr ; Hochstetter the panorama from the summit was mentioned in print. Hochstetter climbed it when on his journey through the North Island in 1859-60; all Waikato was then the land of the Maori, except for the mission sta tions. Hochstetter ascended it from the Rev. Alexander Reid’s station on the Waipa, at Te Kopua, and he described the view from the top in these words: “The beautiful, richly cultivated country about Rangiaowhia and Otawhao (Te Awamutu) lay spread out before us like a map. I counted ten small lakes and ponds scattered about the plains. The church steeples of three places were seen rising from among orchards and fields. Verily, I could hardly realise that I was in the interior of New Zealand.” That scene of peaceful cultivation was ruined by the war of invasion four years later. But the spires of two of those historic churches still rise among the tree groves; and the picture of fertile beauty’ to-day far surpasses that which met Hochstetter’s eyes. SHOULD NOT BE DESECRATED. There are, however, strong objections to this motor road proposal, and I hope the Te Awamutu suggestion will be dropped or defeated. Kakepuku Mountain is emphatically one of those places that should be held tapu against desecration by motor traffic. Let us save some parts of our land from the noises and stinks and perils of the machine. The demand from motorists for more and more high ways and speedways has burdened the country with road making far beyond its needs and means; example, that enormously costly and quite unnecessary tunnel route to Milford Sound. There are in the north roads through forests that will eventually mean the end of the forests; they are, however, necessary travel routes. But there is no necessity sufficient to justify the motor car’s invasion of Kakepuku' The ancient mountain with its history and legends, fairy folk lore and poetry is too fine and sacred a place to be reduced to the level of petrol-fumed traffic with its vulgarising accompaniments. It is a sanctuary, a temple of the gods. Road making around the mountain and up to the top would involve in the first place cuttings and scars that would disfigure the steep sides and damage the vegetation. There is bush in the gullies and on the west side, and it M ould be impossible to avoid interfering with some of this. Fires, too, would be likely. The upper parts and the bush are a scenic reserve, and any roading of this would infringe the purpose for which the reserve was created.

TRADITIONAL INTEREST. A great deal could be written about the mythological .and traditional interest of the peak, itn olden value as a retreat and fortress of the NgatiUnu tribe (the entrenchments of two pas, Tokatoka and Hikurangi, are on its crater top), its curious and poetical fairy lore (together with that of its neighbour, Pirongia), and the wonderful treasure of a never failing water spring that bubbles up on the upper part of the cone, and after flowing a short distance sinks into the earth again. I have profound regard and affec tion for the old mountain; it was my daily picture in my earliest days; I heard its stories and songs from the old Maoris who owned it and lived at its foot; I know every wrinkle and knoll and gully in its furrowed old sides. Such regard may seem strange to those who simply regard it as a place for motor road making and sightseeing; but Kakepuku is .more than a mere lump of a hill to me. I am sure, too, there are many others who will disapprove of this eternal mania for hacking out highways everywhere. Let Kakepuku and Pirongia be saved from the common fate; let there be here and there a true sanctuary of Nature. Those who would see what there is at the top should do as Hochstetter and the rest ef us have done and measure its slopes with their feet. As for the others, I would remind them that a mountain always looks best from below.