Contemporary changes to the 19th century agricultural management of Mount Eden and other nearby volcanic cones spatially linked to one another under local governance through the Auckland Hundreds (1850s) and Highway Boards (1860-1870s) came to be recorded in series of contested petitions. We have the names and locations of the petitioners which critique their demands to retain their grazing rights during a highly political assessment made through committees of the Auckland Provincial Council in 1870.

 

When the report for Mt Eden was received this is how it was described by one Auckland newspaper:

 

PETITIONS

Mr. SWANSON presented a petition from residents in the neighbourhood of Mount Albert, complaining they were now debarred from grazing cattle on the Government reserves, Mount Eden, [my emphasis] and praying that they might be allowed to run cattle on the payment of fees demanded, which they had always been ready to do. The petition was read; and MR SWANSON moved that it be received.

 

Mr. BROOKFIELD thought that the petitioners had misconceived their remedy. He had no desire to impose the reception of the petition; but he believed all powers over these reserves had been delegated to the respective Highway Boards, so that the Superintendent or the Waste Lands Commissioner had no power. …

 

…but the [Mt. Eden] Highway Board held that only residents within the district could send cattle upon the reserves, no matter that fees they were willing to pay.

The petition was received. …

 

But it is the detailed review of the request of the 27 petitioners [Appendix 1] in what was called an “Interim Report” that reveals the contested and changing political history of the use of the Mt Eden Domain: The report said in full:

 

Petition from Mount Eden on Depasturing Cattle.- Petitioners state that they reside in the neighborhood of Mount Eden, and that they are now deprived of the privilege of depasturing their cattle on the Government Reserve, though willing to pay the fee, because, as they allege, they are divided from it by some imaginary line which was drawn without their knowledge or consent.

It appears that the Petitioners originally exercised the right of depasturing on the Mount Eden Reserve under the Crown Lands Ordinance, New Ulster, amended by the Ordinance No. 10 Session 11 of the old Legislative Council under which certain parts of the Province were formed into Hundreds.

By the Auckland Waste Lands Act, 1867, it was enacted that the provisions of the said Ordinances should cease to be of any effect from the date of the passing of that Act, with respect to any hundreds which have been hereafter may be comprised within any Highway District.

But it was further enacted that the Commissioner of Crown Lands should have power to delegate to the Highway Boards all powers and duties imposed by aforesaid Ordinances upon himself or the warders.

The boundaries of the Highway District at Mount Eden were defined by the Superintendent on the 31st of December, 1867, as notified in Gazette of that date and subsequently amended by Proclamation dated 1st October, 1869.

On the 29th December, 1869, D. A. Tole, Crown Lands Commissioner, delegated accordingly such powers to the Board of Trustees of the Mount Eden Highway District.

Petitioners do not state that they are occupants of land within the Mount Eden Highway’s District.

The Committee have the honour to report that in default of such occupation they will not be entitled to privilege claimed.

 

Across town there were parallel petitions being forwarded and assessed by the Provincial Government from Onehunga and the One Tree Hill reserve in 1870. The Minutes from Auckland Provincial Council state that a... "Mr. DIGAN presented a petition from 172 inhabitants of Onehunga, stating that they had been deprived of the run on the Onehunga Hill, which they had been in possession of since 1861, and praying that it might be declared a common for the use of the inhabitants of that village. The Petition was received...".

 

Community processes to control lands 1874-1876.

 

We do not yet know what the feelings of the local communities were after these decisions were made. That would require a detailed examination of newspapers and perhaps Court records. The writer is aware that in Britain and France civil disobedience was fermented by the same sought of decisions being made in Auckland in 1870. The community could have resorted to damaged fences or plantations etc (which is reported as vandalism in some of records in the mid 1870s). With the petitions dispatched the Mt. Eden Highway Board now set new policies to “depasture” or graze cattle. For example at a meeting of the local ‘Trustees’ was held at the Auckland office on Saturday January 22nd 1870. Present Messrs Udy, Paton, May & Green & Walters.

 

…The following apportionment was agreed to for cattle depasturing on the Mount Eden Run.

two acres & under 3 head of cattle

three acres to five 4 head of cattle

five acres to ten 6 head of cattle

ten acres to twenty 8 head of cattle

twenty acres to thirty 10 head of cattle

thirty and upwards 12 head of cattle

Four shillings per head to be charged for all cattle over the apportionment. No person to run more than 12 head of cattle.

 

Thistles were an issue in January 1870 on the Run which suggests the density of the grazing animals was complex.

 

Mr Udy proposed Mr Paton seconded that the Chairman advertise for tenders for the immediate eradication of the thistles on the M. E. {Mt Eden} run.

 

Mr. May Proposed Mr. Paton seconded that the Chairman advertise that the trustees will be in attendance at Cunningham’s Newmarket Hotel on Tuesday next 18 Jany. to issue Depasturing Licenses for the Mount Eden run. The commissioner for Crown Lands having delegated to the Trustees of the Mount Eden Highway Board all the powers of Clause 69 of the Waste Lands Act, 1867 (See Government Gazette No 99.).”

 

Four years later in January 1874 a new voice of landscape design heard from leaders of the community surrounding the Maungawhau cone. It was coming at a time in the context of the construction of Western Park, in Ponsonby, and the dismantling of the Albert Barracks lands in the central city that saw a landscape design competition held to develop these lands that were being transformed from dense rented houses in Ponsonby and a military barracks that has housed thousands of troops. The Mount Eden Highway Board said it,

 

Resolved that it is desirable to plant and enclose Mt Eden as a domain for the southern suburbs of the City – that the Provincial Council be requested to place the sum of (L500) five hundred pounds at the disposal of a Commission to consist of two members of the board & three Gentlemen resident in the District the seed sum to be appropriated by them in enclosing & planting of Mt Eden.

 

The following news item appeared a few days later reporting on the resolution and suggested that it was stimulated by the “example set by the Southern cities of Christchurch and Dunedin…”.

 

If the affirmation often made – “that every man who plants a tree is benefactor to his country” – be true, the Mount Eden Highway Board deserve the thanks of the community for taking initiatory steps with a view to planting of Mount Eden with forest trees and shrubs. The bare rugged outline of the huge volcanic mass seen from the harbour or from the country surrounding it now presents an object of interest, but if the proposal brought forward by the board be carried into effect with taste and judgment, it will in a few years be changed into one of great beauty, and Mount Eden will become a favorite resort as a place of recreation – enjoyment for all who delight in fine scenery and invigorating breezes.

 

This must have been addressed from the Highway Board to the Auckland Provincial Council. In the following year, 1875, another one page resolution with an abstract and four points was sent to the general Government in Wellington by the Auckland Provincial Government to obtain a “crown grant” for the Maungawhau cone. The abstract said,

 

 That a Board of Conservation be appointed for improvement of Mt Eden

with a view to its conversion into a park for public recreation.”

 

And the four points it made were,

 

1. At present Mt. Eden is “a common” on which cattle, horses, goats, pigs and geese roam at will – the goats especially doing extraordinary damage to the surrounding properties. A depasturing license of 10 [shillings] per head per annum for cattle is paid, but the Highway Board consider it scarcely worth collecting.

 

2. Already a small area on the mountain has been fenced and planted, and if protection is offered other areas will be planted by private individuals. It is believed that citizens of Auckland and residents in other parts of the Province will readily contribute trees and fencing for what may be considered as a Peoples Park, so soon as security for the work is assured to them.

 

3. The Board should be appointed by the Superintendent consisting in part of owners of property lying contiguous to the Mount Eden Reserve, who living on the spot would have opportunities of personally protects the grounds. There efforts should be partially directed to the establishment and acclimatize of foreign plants and as the [shrubs] and varieties of the vine etc. etc.

 

4. That as the design is to create a public park – a grant towards its conservation may be fairly asked for [L25 pounds written in pencil in margin].

 

The Government said of this resolution in July 1875 that the issue of the Crown Grant would “receive consideration”. By October the Colonial Secretary in Wellington wrote to the Superintendent of Auckland Province stating that the general Government, “have not considered it advisable to issue the Crown Grant”. But the following year with a new Auckland Superintendent, Sir George Grey, he was informed that the lands were now being scheduled. Seventy five pounds were also given by the General Government at this time and two local residents J. C. Firth and Beetham had provided [conifer] trees and fencing costs (to secure trees from grazing stock) were paid by the Mt Eden Highway Board.

 

The Highway Board and the Provincial Government had also provided “seed” money to plant perhaps the first trees on the cone. We have in the published accounts of the Mt. Eden Highway Board expenditure to July 1875 “to planting forest trees, L44 [pounds] 12s and 6d”. Thirty pounds had been paid towards planting trees on Mt. Eden, and that another L14 [pounds] had been contributed out of general rates of the district…”

 

Several questions remain unanswered as to whether a competitive landscape design was commissioned for Mount Eden in 1875 or 1876? What was Sir George Greys’ political involvement in the design and the change in thinking in issuing a Crown Grant? And was the decision to adopt the process of planting trees using an aesthetic design process a considered and conscious process of removing the common law rights of grazing animals given to the Mechanics and other poor settlers under various laws, some linked to Australian Colonial law.

 

NOTE: Some of this research was completed for a report on the landscape history of the Maungawhau/Mount Eden Domain Conservation Plan in 2006.

 

APPENDIX 1

Petition of Mount Eden residents. Petition 16. 27 January, 1870.

 

Wm [Graves], Kyber Pass

M. O’Donoghue

William Barrard

Henry Smith Kyber Pass

Joseph Rose

William McIntosh

William White Mount Eden Road

John Haslett [?]

James Storey Mount Eden Road

John [Stowe]

[Krobeth Monroe]

William Bowden Stockade Road

Gerald Grace

James Grace Stockade Road

William Thompson Stockade Road

James McShane Kyber Pass Road

[Mr/s Flemodays]

T. N. Best

John Gready

Rich Davies

Michael Bourke

Alfred Isaacs

Thomas Lowe

James Barley

Thomas Hancock

William Kelly

Robert Edwards