OLD TAUPO

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 13

OLD TAUPO

BEFORE ROADS CAME

INLAND WATER TRANSPORT

EARLY PUMICE FARMING

Close- by the famed Tougariro Biver, flowing into Taupo near Tokaanu, lives one of the.few'-.jinks with the early days of the great lake. Mr. John E. Grace-was born on 16th April, 1554, the son of the pioneer niissioi.tary the Key. T. S. Grace.' It, was!in' 1351. that the.. Bev,,,T. S. Grace arrived in the Taupo district, where, lie established a mission, station at P.ukawa, on tlie west endof the lakeV lit itefm's of European, history, this event in 1801 was three years before the/ -outbreak of- the Crimean' War.. In.-terms of. Now Zealand history,.it was the birth, of Christianity' and '■ white; culture in Taupo. ' In-1873 'the':Bov." ;T.; S;: -Grace "left. Piikawa,- in -order to go' to England, in 1874..;.' He returned in. 187S arid 'died, at Tapranga in,lS79. *. , . ;.

FROM COAST TO LAKELAND.

_ The recollections of Mr. John E. .: Grae<v include early, ..she^rfarming ,;on. puiniee. ?land, and on-..' the .: mountain slopesJ the' wonderful (and lost)"system of, inland water. transportation-. by , qariooj Which "enabled people "and goods to 'pSss l£rom coast *to Lakeland at a '.•time when, roads and ino'tor traffic %ere unnecessary; the: Maori warsj. and the Te Kooti campaign.

,In the late 'sixties sheepfarming had started on the country north of Taupo, Te Kooti trouble and the polir tiual ' consoqucnecs thereof (including the impossibility of securing effective titles) 'killed the ' effort; after; which the pumice land deteriorated through .persistent burning and changed. ,its character, manuka and scrub replacing tussock, and fern. (To this day. the burning habit persists in the Tokaanu country,- and r'quite recently the trout•hatchery- staff; their domestic goods because ..of a: fire that narrowly missed their ;quarter&.-,. Yet a warning against humus-destruction by burning tras" sounded more than.half ■■$. century ago, and may. be found in the pages of HochßtpJt'er.);'.._.'.;.,Jv''A. ■■■...■•'.' ._■}'

Air. John E. Grace recalls tnat in IS6S a number of sheep, people from Hawkes Bay and Canterbury took up Jand north of Taupo. He held one run •with his brother, the late Mr. "W. H. Grace. Other settlers, all deceased, ■were Mr. Cox, Mr. Alfred Hillier, Colonel Whitmore, and Captain St. George, who later lost his hfo in the pursuit of Te Kooti.

TE KOOTI SCATTERS THE SHEEP!. The land was taken up on 21 yoats Maori leases, with pre emptive right to tho Crown. Sheop "ivoie brought in from Hawkes Bay. Messrs. Grace Bros.' station was Paeioa, near what is now called Reparoa. All tho ruuholders were shearing in 286!). But already the country had been disturbed by the massacio perpetrated ljy Te Kooti near Gisborne in 18G8. Te Kooti's coming from the East Coast to Taupo brought the fighting close to the young settlement. Ho and Ins men •were pursued. by vwhito and Native forces, and he was attacked at Porcre Pa. (on the Upgor Wanganui River, close to the road that now runs tluough Tongariro National Park) and in this assault Oaptain St. George was killed, as was "Winiata, a fighting chiet of'the Native contingent that came ? from Wanganui under Major Kemp. Swept by a cross-fire, the pa was abandoned, and T-e Kooti, whp lost .l^men, escaped, wounded, to the- King Gowitry. There he remained ior jeais, the policy of Sir Donald M'Lran being to leave the, King Country Natives' alone, aiid let the King movement die out.

/v.i3jlt.ineanwhUo'"T6';K|Bpti''s'moveni'ehts -had compelled the Tunholders to withdraw. Some I'dst .their sheep. Discburaged;by misf ortune^ and-the difficulty 'of blitaining securer titles—the Government became'opposed to private owners', taking, up. Native land, and preferred Government negotiations for : Grown piirchase-^-the r'unh'olders aban;-. dpned the effort. That was tho end of 'the first settlement, in. the Taupo dis- < trict.7..--■ v .■■■' C. .::.,-;, :■.-.;' ; y--,' ~";■;■; ,• , : •

ARMED; CONSTABULAEY PERIOD.

.Mr. Grace recalls- tita Armed Constabulary^ occtrpation of.'Taupo (1869----70). and the line of redoubts they established from there to Napier. The roabV went via Opepe, Eunanga, -T»rawera, and over.the bighiil To Haroto, whence, one ■ looked down on Hawkes Bay. ■ The Armed Constabulary remained for\ years, and in Taupo town a fow men.set. up in business. •■■Tohl arid William Noble built the: first hotel in Taupo. (afterwards the Lake Hotel). Trooper Lofley established the Spa. Taupo township was laid off in the early 'seventies. : ' '''■

...Settlement of the land north of ■Taupo began again. Ballet t Brothers secured part of the. run Wharetotri, near Eunanga; ; about 55,000 acres. In--1880 Mr. Grace'himself took up 22,000 aores;nexf toHallett?s, Taharua Valley. .Titles were. secured from the Native Land Court. He carried on an average 4.000. to 5000 sheep, about a sheep to five acres. He sold out in'lß93. South of Taupo a sheep- run was started by Messrs. Tom Morrin, Studholme, and..Moprehousc, who secured the Karioi and Owhaoko blocks (including the south and east slopes of Buapehu). In 1879 they stocked with 4000 sheep, and had two. shearings .They, got access to Lake Taupo by a temporary lease.of. Pukawa block, and Mr. • Grace himself, became, associated with their ioperations as a small partner arid ■ manager.. In the third year they_ haa 10,000 sheep,, but could not get title. The sheep were removed from P.ukawa, arid it. had been unoccupied ever since—and all they wanted was a 21 years' lease!

Galatea,, on the Eangitaiki River, recently purchased by the Government, was taken' up in the 'eighties by Mr Troutbeck.. Part of Captain St. George's run, north of Taupo, was taken up by Mr. X E. Vaile, and i? now Broadlands. Part of Mr. W. H. Grace's run was;taken up by Mr. Wm. Butcher as Eeparoa.

DETERipBATION' BY BUENING,

The pumice land north .'.of' -..Tanpo could have been settled if .settlement ■had been allowed to proceed on the lines /begun in .the/sixties,, but after-that a .great deterioration took placo- owing to burning and the depredations of wild horses. .In the. early days, when. it-meant food supply, fern 'was protected by the Maoris under, the strict'rule ofHheir chiefs. When they fell away from this discipline, fire swept both fern and $ tussock,, which'.gave-place -to scrttb and inamika vnb't- previously -growing thetfe, though the seed' thereof must have .-..been lying dormant for very many.years; waiting its chance-to take" possession of the land;' "Thus a" new obstacle: arose to surface-spwihg of grass and cropping with oats, and the: difficulties of settlement increased proportionately.. In the old. days oata cropped abundantly. . • ; When at length Te Kooti felt free to leave the King Country, and return to the East Coast, Mr. Gra'C and his brother, while attending a Nativo Band Court at Cambridge, met him there in 1882. Te Kooti as a lad at Gisborne had been- befriended by their father, the Key. T. S. Grace, and over a glass of .wine _at Cambridge they tested >his recollection of the pioneer missionary. Te Kooti said that when ho and his war party went through tlie Taupo country in 1869, had ho met the Graces and known whose sons they were, not a. hair of their heads would have been touched. But, had they not been so

known; they.would'have been killed—i as were ten men only, twenty miles away from their run;

Te Kooti was not a- chief by birth, and bore no tattoo. His leadership among the Maoris was entirely due to personal power..

TO SCHOOL THROUGH WAX

THEATRE.

Tho fact' speaks for itself that, throughout tho Waikato War' (1860----65), the Grace family not only was unmolested at Taupo, but its' two elder boys' "(Mr.' John E. Grace's brothers) woro able to attend school in Auckland, passing through the lines to and fro. One track open to them ran west of Lake Taupo and down into the Waikato country, but did not touch the river till - Cambridge was reached; thence .they went down tho Waikato to Auckland in canoes. . ~

Iti tho roadless 'fifties the canoe did what the road '..vehicle does now. Almost : a continuous waterway joined .Taupo [with tho. ..Bay of Plenty. From.' the Rev. T. S. Grace's mission station at Pukawa, on the lake, canoes; plied to .Tapuaeharuru- (now Taupo town), where the Waikato leaves Taupo. From Tapuaeharuru the; passenger went on by canoe t.6"otum6heke,/at- : the mouth of tho Spa. Here: there -was a portage to Pueto, to. ,av9id Huka Palls. '. Canoe was then taken by way, of tho Waikato arid its tributary the Waiotapu to a point on the ..Waiotapu only a couple of' niilcs. from, Botoniahana (the old ■pro-eruption .\ lake). Botomahanai and Tarawera were, in those days connected with: a warm: creek which drained the former .into :the:"latter. 'A-portage ifrqm the.Waiotapu toKo.tomahana-plac-ed the, passenger on. this, lake waterway; whore; a calling placo . was Te Ariki (one of the villages buried, with its inhabitants, by. Tarawera in 188S). The next -link was the Tarawera River. A portage, avoided; the, falls, and the river then gave a waterway to -Matata: on the Bay- of jPlenty. T.'-' ■-■■/■ So far as the water travel was; coiir cerned, this :-vv&.s amply" provided for' said,. Mr. Grace, by; a plentitude of canoes of: all kindst, now .nowhere to "bp seen. At the ,: postages there - were bullocks as adaptable as horses, and the transport of people and goods was slow but sure. ;"Where there usdd to . be plenty; of. canoes-that fcould carry 20 t0.30 men, you will now not find one;i" A canoo on; Taupo.■■ could easily carry SO,"pockets" of „ wool, and each pocket " weighed: 701b to BQlb—nearly three .tons of. wool •in one canoe. ' -In, the /'eighties Taupo took'; a great step forwards- Inland water transportation, evolved rapidly, and. a. steamer appeared .on the lake? But the new century brought neyv competition "on the' Spadsp and; Captaint;' Byan and his Steamer run no more. It is>odd to think that_ so .many changes have happened within. the. life-span of , a single' man. •'■