TABLELAND THE HISTORY BEHIND MT ARTHUR KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK RAY SALISBURY CONTENTS : .......................................... FOREWORD: Dr Nick Smith .......................................... 07 HUNTING Dead or alive 125 : ................. PREFACE ............................................................................ 09 SEARCH & RESCUE Lost and found 133 : ............ DISCOVERY: In search of .......................................... 11 CONSERVATION Seeking sanctuaries 141 : . MINING: Golden gullies ............................................... 29 RENOVATION Historic huts 151 : .............................................. GRAZING: Beef and mutton ....................................... 45 CAVING Final frontier 165 EPILOGUE ....................................................................... 177 RECREATION: Tramping and camping ................. 65 ............................................. CHAFFEYS: Alone together ........................................ 83 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 179 ................................................................... COBB DAM: Hydro power .......................................... 93 ENDNOTES 181 ............................................................ FORESTRY: Huts and tracks ..................................... 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 DISCOVERY IN SEARCH OF Setting the scene Waimea when Te Rauparaha’s troops invaded some decades later. What is relevant to the history of the Tableland is the arduous route hen Polynesians first sailed across the vast Pacific to arrive in the Ngāi Tahu warriors travelled. Leaving the Canterbury Plains, they Aotearoa, they settled on the coast, where food supplies were marched north via the Hurunui River to Lake Sumner. Tramping over a Wplentiful. Some travelled to the top of Te Waipounamu (the South low mountain pass, they traced the Waiau and Boyle rivers over Lewis Island), which they named Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Māui, the prow of Maui’s Pass. Once over the Main Divide, they followed the Maruia River down to canoe. This provided a safe haven until peace was broken when marauding its confluence with the Buller River (near modern-day Murchison). Very tribes invaded, driving them into the bush. difficult terrain was negotiated along the Matiri ridge to gain the upper However, did these early Māori ever breach the Mt Arthur Range to reach reaches of the Karamea River, which they then followed down to the sea. the Tableland? Who first set foot on this land, uplifted high? Archaeologists When they passed through Karamea Bend, they were 10 kilometres from have recorded about 300 Māori occupation sites in Taitapu (Golden Bay), the Tableland and 1000 vertical metres below it. including pā sites, gardens, fishing settlements, urupā (burial sites), kōiwi During the late 1790s, a new tribe had migrated from the North Island, (human remains) and middens (rubbish dumps). a branch of the Ngāti Apa, known as Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, ‘the Ngāti Apa In the Nelson region, early tribes included Rapuwai, Waitaha, Ngāti of the sunset,’ because they paddled their waka towards the setting sun Above: Lynette Salisbury Wairangi, Hāwea and Ngāti Māmoe. From about 1550, Ngāi Tara settled the from their tribal lands around the Rangitikei district. Arriving at Rangitoto clings to a chain above Waimea district, west of Nelson; in the early 1600s, they were displaced by (D’Urville Island), they dwelt in the Marlborough Sounds and later in the a flooded section in the Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri (originally from Taupō). Nelson region and Golden Bay after defeating Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. upper Karamea River. Opposite: Marble form- For two centuries Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri dominated the district, their tribal In 1824, the paramount chief Te Rauparaha lived in a stronghold ations on the track up Mt boundaries stretching from Karamea to Golden Bay, and across to Tasman on Kāpiti Island. He was attacked by a large fleet of war canoes. These Arthur, with Mt Hodder Bay. According to oral tradition, members from this powerful tribe killed a Horowhenua tribes were supported by the Ngāti Apa from the Nelson area. (left) and Lodestone (right) Ngāi Tahu chief, Pakeke, at Maruia. To atone for this, Ngāi Tahu launched a Despite being outnumbered and caught unaware, Te Rauparaha and his rising beyond. retributive raid to the north end of the island. Ngāti Toa warriors won the battle. In about 1810, fighting men left the pa at Kaiapoi, in modern-day To exact revenge, Te Rauparaha’s men and allies from Taranaki launched Canterbury, marched north and attacked Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri at the West invasions of the South Island during 1828–29 and were responsible for Whanganui Inlet in Golden Bay. Under the command of their chief Wharekino, thousands of deaths. In about 1830, raids were made near Motueka. The aided by a detachment from the West Coast, utu was exacted, and Ngāti conquerors had the advantage of using firearms, so local Māori retreated Tūmatakōkiri was largely annihilated. With the passing of this tribe, most up the Motueka River to Pokororo, but were discovered. Smoke from their of the original place names around the Nelson province were lost, though campfires and other signs of human habitation may have betrayed their there is evidence that some survivors were still living around Motueka and hiding places. 6 TABLELAND | DISCOVERY TABLELAND 7 Lake Sylvester Lodestone Iron Hill summit Mt Arthur Tableland Mount Peel NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSUEM, DAVIS COLLECTION REF: 532 James Mackay Arthur Dobson (1831–1912) (1842–1934) James Mackay was schooled in Scotland until age 14 Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast of the South Island) Arthur Dobson’s father was the provincial engineer when his family emigrated to Nelson in 1845. His father by the Crown for only £300. in Christchurch, so young Arthur had a head start had bought land at Drumduan, just north of Nelson, and In 1860, Mackay turned his attention to blazing a in the field of surveying. Dobson was immortalised was a justice of the peace as well as an insurance agent, saddle track from the upper Aorere River to the West by the naming of Arthur’s Pass, a traditional Māori representing Nelson in the first Parliament. His son learnt Coast. He surveyed a rough route over the Gouland route which he ‘discovered’ in 1864, for gold farming skills, and gained fluency in Māori from local Ngāti Downs, not quite in the exact line of the present miners to cross from Canterbury to the coast. Tama.36 Heaphy Track. From the Heaphy River, Mackay left Arthur Dobson and his barrister friend William Aged 21, James Mackay bought 1500 acres of land at his mates and trekked to Westport in a single day. Travers, from Nelson, would make geological and Cape Farewell, Golden Bay, which he stocked with sheep. James Mackay made numerous visits to Westport botanical expeditions together to visit the Mt The population there consisted almost entirely of Māori. as resident magistrate and goldfield warden but Arthur Tableland. When conflict arose between new settlers and local finally left the coast in 1863 as the New Zealand Dobson moved to Westport, becoming the Māori, he appealed to the native secretary to appoint him Wars escalated in the Waikato. He had also recently chief surveyor. In 1871 he was appointed as the into a position to mediate. By 1858 he was appointed the married. For the remainder of his life, Mackay provincial engineer in Nelson. In 1875 he became assistant native secretary and land purchase commissioner was involved in government and provincial affairs the district surveyor. By 1901, Dobson had come for the South Island. around Auckland and Thames. full circle, being appointed as Christchurch’s city 37 NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSUEM, BETT LOAN COLLECTION REF: 314705 From 1857–1860, Mackay negotiated the purchase of He died in 1912. 38 engineer, like his father. He was knighted in 1931. 8 TABLELAND | DISCOVERY DISCOVERY | TABLELAND 9 10 TABLELAND | DISCOVERY MINING GOLDENGOLD GULLIES he mad rush for gold began in California during 1849, followed by similar developments in Canada, South Africa and Australia. However, Tin New Zealand, the settlers of the Nelson district were preoccupied with breaking in their land of promise, growing and then selling vegetables on the Australian markets for the gold diggers there. In January 1855, a powerful earthquake rattled New Zealand. Registered at 8.2 on the Richter scale, this shock was felt across the country – but brick buildings were not the only thing to be shaken up. The fledgling economy was about to get a major boost through increased immigration and investment. In 1856, an astute Nelson businessman offered a handsome reward of NELSON MUSEUM. TYREE COLLECTION REF: 35888 £500 for the man who could find a payable goldfield. Early settler John Park Salisbury read about this challenge in the newspaper. His farm was Above: George Lightband producing very little money, though potatoes and wild pork prevented was recognised as finding starvation, and as a single man struggling to eke out a living up the remote the first payable goldfield Motueka Valley, he was certainly tempted by the prospect of earning some in the Aorere River. quick capital. En route to New Zealand, Salisbury had had six weeks’ Left: Sluicing for gold in the Aorere Valley. experience on the goldfields of Bingara, northwest of Sydney. Opposite: Gridiron Creek NELSON PROVINICAL MUSEUM, TYREE STUDIO COLLECTION REF: 74038 was the site of a goldmining Collingwood goldfield scheme in the 1930s. Rumours from Collingwood of ‘good gold’ spread like wild fire. John Salisbury