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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 7 (November 1, 1933)

The Gift of Maunga-kiekie

The Gift of Maunga-kiekie.

The patriarch's gifts to his home city amount in cash value, it has been estimated, to at least
(Govt. Publicity photo.) Maunga-kiekie, Cornwall Park, Auckland. Sir John Logan Campbell is buried on the summit.

(Govt. Publicity photo.)
Maunga-kiekie, Cornwall Park, Auckland. Sir John Logan Campbell is buried on the summit.

a quarter of a million pounds. But his benefactions to Auckland are not to be measured in mere cash values. The noble park, fair in the heart of greater Auckland, which he made over to the people in 1901, is a really priceless public endowment. It has several names. Totara-iahua is the sharp summit, the ancient tihi or citadel of the great chief Kiwi Tamaki; the hill is Maunga-kiekie (“Mount of the climbing plant Freycinetia Banksii”); the local popular name is One-Tree Hill, and at the donor's request it was renamed Cornwall Park in honour of the Royal visitors. But a more fitting name now would be Campbell Park, and that is what one would like to see it generally styled in the future. It is a very lovely place, this softly green and partly-wooded hill, rising in tier after tier of terraces and in curves shady with tall trees; a wonderful relic of Maori military engineering genius which made of this volcanic cone a fortress, with line after line of escarpments which in some places resemble great amphitheatres, round about the ancient craters. Campbell left a bequest of £5,000 to erect a great obelisk to the memory of the glory of the Maori race on the crest of the mountain, but what better memorial can there be than the hill itself? The fortifications so clearly traceable to-day extend about a hundred acres. This is only a small portion of the parklands that circle around the tree-crowned mountain top where the grand old man sleeps, for as is fitting he was laid to rest on the summit. There we may imagine his spirit lingers to keep watch over the plain of Tamaki-makau-rau. To him how well applies the epitaph linked with the name of Sir Christopher Wren, “Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice.” At the main entrance to the park there is a statue to his memory, but the park itself is his sufficient monument.