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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 8 (November 1, 1935)

The Ever-Burning Occupation Fire

The Ever-Burning Occupation Fire.

I could narrate many a story of Te Heuheu Horonuku, the Park-giver, who died in 1888, leaving his son, Tureiti te Heuheu, a great friend of mine in the days that are gone, to carry on the mana of the family and clan in his stead. Just one may be recalled; it is the story of the good old chief's splendid retort to an impertinent counter-claimant to parts of the Southern mountain area. It was in the Land Court in Taupo township. Major Kepa te Rangihiwinui, the fighting chief of the Whanganui tribes, asserted that his fires of conquest (raupatu) had burned in South Taupo; his ahi-ka, or “kindled fire” was his title to the land.

Te Heuheu Horonuku heard with rising indignation this speech of Kepa's. He rose and answered him.

“Who are you,” he said, “that speak of your fires of occupation burning in my country? Where is your continuous fire, your ahi-ka-roa [long burning fire]? Where is it? You cannot show it, for it does not exist. Now I shall show you mine! Look yonder”— and he pointed through the open window of the Court-room across the great Lake, southward. A curl of yellow vapour coiled up from Ngauruhoe crater.

“Behold my ahi-ka-roa—my mountain Tongariro! There burns my fire, kindled long ago by my ancestor Ngatoro-i-Rangi. It was he who lit that fire; it has burned there ever since! That is my fire of occupation. Now show me yours!”

No wittier or more forcible argument could be uttered. Kepa and his party were silenced. They found it useless to press their claim. No human hand could light so long-burning a fire of conquest. That is one of a hundred dramatic passages in the grand saga of the sacred mountains.

Taupo Moana and the Volcanoes. From a water colour drawing by the late Captain T. Ryan, of Taupo. This view of the Lake and the mountains of the Tongariro National Park is from the Red Rocks at Waipahihi, North Taupo.

Taupo Moana and the Volcanoes.
From a water colour drawing by the late Captain T. Ryan, of Taupo. This view of the Lake and the mountains of the Tongariro National Park is from the Red Rocks at Waipahihi, North Taupo.