TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 70, 20 May 1953, Page 1

TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

TALES OF THE TAUPO COUNTRY EARLY SHEEP FARMING

(By

R. H.

WA

Today, when fchousands of acres of land are being farmed in the Taupo Country, it is perhaps of inter'est to Iook back at the early days of sheep farming there. For the earlier years referred to in these notes the writer is indebted to the late Mr James Cowan's hook ''The Tongariro National Park," published in 927.

First Sheep in Taupo. ihe first sheep in the Taupo Country appear to have been a small mob introduced by the Rev. Thomas Samuei Grace, of Pukawa, about 1855 cr 1856. The experiment was Cjuite suceessful, the sheep being run at Pukawa, and at Otukou, near Lake Rotoaire, but following the outbreak of the WaiKato War, when Mr Grace had to abandon his -mission station, the flock was exterminated. It is of infcerest to note that Mr P. Alfred Grace, O.B.E., ot Tokaanu, prominent for some years in the management of Maori land development there, is a grandson of Grace of Pukawa. In 1869, during the campaign in the Taupo Country against the Hauhaus, Colonei McDonnell's Arm&d Constabulary and their Maori allies wero relieved from semistarvation by the sending of a mob of sheep from Mr W. Birch's station at Muri motu, Inland Patea via the Rangipo (present Desert Road). But it w as not untii 1878-79 that an attempt to establish sheep on a large scale was made, the pioneer managers of the project being L. M. Grace, and J, E, Grace, sons of the missionary.

First Fiocks at Tongariro. The two Grace brothers negotiated with the Maori owners of the tussock country surroundmg the Tongariro mo^tai n group, and an arrangement was made under which certain subtribes of N. ga ti-Tu wharetoa received a rental of £300 per annum and a share in the increase of the sheeo The owners of the flocks wero Messrs Studholme, Moorhouse and Morrin, large land and sheep owners, and Mr J. E. Grace was a partner in the venture at the commencement, The business was run in the name of Studholme, Morrin and Grace, untii 1882, when Mr Grace went into business on his own account with sheep at Taharua Station, on the Taupo-Napier Road. Mr J. K Grace brought the first mob into the Tongariro country from Maraekakaho, Sir Donald McLean's station, and frcm Clifton Station (Cape Kidnappers). These four thousand merinos from Hawkes Bay came via Owhaoko, Inland Patea' and the Rangipo. The second mob was | brought in via Napier and Taupo, I from Waimarama, Hawkes Bay, in J 1879, and was of two thousand five hundred sheep. In 1880 a third mob of about three thousand was brought from Mr Studholme's run at Owhaoko, and was in charge of Robert Beresford Maunsell, a riephew of Archdeacon F. Maunsell, pioneer missionary of the Lower Waikato. The graging operations were eontrolled by Mr L, M. Grace. The Schooner Dauntless. The distance from markets, and the difficulty of keeping* the sheep oft the mount&ins, led after some years to the abandonment of the project. One of the afctendant difficulties was the worrying of sheep by dogs, wild and half-wild, In the early stages of the experiment, a

small schooner, the Dauntless, which had been built at Taupo, carried the wool from Tokaanu across the lake to Taupo, whence it was carted to Napier. Later it went from Taupo to Tauranga by way of Atiamuri and Rotorua, and later still to Auckland by ra.il from Lichfield. The Dauntless appears to have been owned by Mrs H. John Axford, for the writer recalls, years ago, being shown an invoice forrn bearing the name of the Dauntless, and Mrs Axford's name as cwner. Mrs Oxford 's maiden name was Pa ra toko Wirenu and sh e was a sister of Ngamotu Wiremu. Following the close of the sheep-running period in the Tongariro area, sheep were run on the Lake shores near Tauranga-Taupo and Waitetoko, as well as on the westera and northwestern shores. Mr Dan Ferney's vessel Tauhara, the first steam boat on the Lake, visited such places as Waitetoko, Waihaha and Waihora in the shearing seaso'n to pick up the wool clip. Mr John E. Grace brought sheep, again from Inland Patea about the year 1894 established them at Tihoi, inland from the shore of Lake Taupo at Waihora, and ran them there until about 1900. During that period sheep were shora in a wool shed on the beaeh at Waihora, and a small jetty there was used to load wool. There was a similar jetty at Waihaha. During the last few years of the sheep farming period round ihe Lake wool wras picked up by the S. S. Tongariro, which superseded the Tauhara about the beginning of the present century. Following the close of this early sheep farming period neaiiy half a century was to elapse before modern motor transpoi T, and increased knowledge of farming the volcanic country, made possible the farming era that is now beginning in the Taupo Country.