TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1933, Page 3

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. k In this description of this graceful act on the part of the great Maori chief, Te Heuheu 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 volcamc mountains so closely associated with his family history, the repository of warrior father’s bones, the. mountains linked to his name and his ‘mana authority, prestige, influence— in clan religion, history, legend and poem, did not wish to see them sola passed into alien hands. His tnen , • L. M. Grace, then M.H.R. for Tauranga in Parliament, suggested that e make over the mountains w ’ .. by general consent his own Crown as a possession of the nation, Pakeha and Maori. t gLVuT to th. tothneak of Mt. Ruapehu. This peak Heuheu is the most beautiful picture in £ whole of the Park, fitting memorial me wno qn ancient race. to of the Maori Chiefs,” from w 2ch the extract is made, has recentiy Sn published. It undoubted Seat to every New Zealander became “ contains an account of six of the leading chieftains, and many interesting incidents of the early colonisation of the Dominion. A limited edition wfly has been printed, but copies can te obtained on applicataion to lhe head office of the Texas Company (Australasia) Limited» Wellington, and by forwarding threepence in stamps to oovgr handling