TONGARIRO RIVER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 90, 7 December 1931, Page 7

TONGARIRO RIVER

QUESTION OF NAME AUTHORITIES DIFFER ON QUESTION OF ITS DESCRIPTION THE "UPPER WAIKATO" In declining to reeommend "Tongariro" for "Upper Waikato" River, surely the New Zealand Geographic Board has missed an opportunity to remove an incongruity in our nomenclature, and had it acted otherwise it could at the same time have removed another by giving or revealing some other designation for' the rapidlyrolling creek mapped by some as "Tongariro" the source of which appears to be in the Kaimanawa Range, and not, as the name would imply, in the Tongariro mountain district, writes Mr. H. Fildes, in the Wellington "Evening Post." It is understood that the Maori of old generally gave to districts and the rivers which passed through them the same appellations, and as examples we have the Waikato, Wairau, Hokianga, Mokau, and many more could be given. Surmise and Authorities Quite a number of writers could be quoted, and have recently been quoted during the discussion on the subject, stating that the river running into Lake Taupo at its south•ern shore is named the Waikato, but on the other hand we have several declaring that the river is named Tongariro, and among these we have been given such authorities as Sir George Grey and Mr. George F. Allen, the surveyor and part owner of Allen Bros.' forty years ago summer camp at the foot of Mount Ngauruhoe, and ! also Mr. James Cowan's contributions on the subject. It would appear as if these gentlemen had exerted themselves to arrive at the correet nomenclature, the others recording what they had perhaps been seen by natives or Europeans residing north of Lake Taupo. However, surmise will not assist materially to elucidate the point in dispute, so to the authorities quoted in support of "Tongariro" as the cor- ! rect or primary name for the "Upper 1 Waikato" River, I would add Mr. George French Angas, who, in "Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand," 1847, vol 2, »p. ! 125, states, "Waitahanui, the old pa i of Te Heuheu, stands on a neck of low swampy land jutting into the lake ! (Taupo) ; and a broad, deep river, ! forming a delta, called the Tonga1 riro, and by some the Waikato (as that river runs out again at the other j end of Taupo Lake), empties itself ' near the pa." j Another authority is the late Mr. j George Bectham, F.R.G.S., who, in | making the first ascent of Mount Ruapehu in Mareh, 1878, writes, "The view wej had from the summit was also inexpressibly fine and grand . . . Lake Taupo to the east and the Tongariro River, ■ the. Kaimanawa and I Ruahine Ranges to the east and south,

the Muruwhi Plain and the Ngaehu Valley to the south-west . . . and the peak of Ngauruhoe towering above the clouds, were all mirrored beneath us with great distinctness." Further on Mr. Beetham states, "Tokaanu is situated on a delta formed by the Tongariro River, and is a stretch of fair alluvial soil." And still one more authority is found in Chapman's "Gazetteer of the Province of Auckland," 1865, it giving, "Tongariro, Delta and Native Village. Where ] Tongariro River enters Taupo Lake." j Then we have Gaptain T. E. Donne, C.M.G., for many years superintendent of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, writing, "the Tongariro River is famous throughout the ang'ling world for the large number of its huge rainbow trout." "Upper Waikato" It may be inter esting to know in what way the name "Upper Waikato" i came to be applied to the Tongariro j River, and it may not be far from I the truth in suggesting that the name ! was given, not by the natives residing south of Lake Taupo, but by J those on its northern shores, or of j the district of the Waikato through which that large river flows. Mr. ' Alexander Kennedy, of Auckland, i who travelled the middle Waikato ! Dasin to so far south as Alexandra, now Pirongia, in writing of the Waikato River in 1848, tells us, "The Natives, however, with their love for

the marvellous, deny that Lake Taupo is the source of the Waikato, which is to be found, they allege, about 20 miles to the south of it, near Tongariro. They describe the stream which flows from near the base of this mountain into Taupo as the Waikato, and say that its course, by a difference in temperature and colour, can easily be traced through the waters of the lake to the opposite side, and that the Waikato flows through Taupo in the same manner as the Rhone through the lake of Geneva. But this story requires confirmation. It is, however, not improbable that the melting of the snow on a mountain like Tongariro, which, in addition to its great height, is an active volcano, may constantly feed and occasionally swell the lake ' and raise it above its level, thereby causing it to flow with greater rapidity into the channel of the Waikato, which on leaving the lake is upwards of 30 yards broad. The Maori story is, however, not to be despised, as | they observe with accuracy any unusual oceurrence in natural history." This roniantic fiction of the Natives is dismissed 35 years later by the English explorer Kerry-Nicholls, who states that the "Upper Waikato" River is erroneously styled, and that it is no more connected with the Waikato proper than are the numerous other streams adding their quota to the lake waters."