History

North Island kokako chicks, part of the
captive breeding programme

Maori history

According to Maori legend, as the Takitimu canoe sailed past, the tohunga threw a papamua (a wooden carving in the shape of a bird) towards the range. As it landed, the mountain seemed to roar with the sound of the birds rising from the forest. Maungaharuru translates as rumbling mountain, named for the sound of the prolific bird life.

Maori used the range as a food source for hunting and bird snaring. Snared birds, preserved in their own fat, were traded with coastal tribes for fish.

A track along the range to Te Urewera country connected the coast with the interior ranges. Obsidian hunting tools, adzes, a knife and broken mere have been found in the area.

A number of iwi and hapu are recognised as tangata whenua namely Ngati Hineuru, Ngati Pahauwera, Ngati Tu, Ngati Kurumokihi, and Ngati Whakaairi.

European history

The Boundary Stream Scenic Reserve was originally part of Te Heru o Tureia and Maungaharuru blocks leased from their Maori owners in the 1870s by J Gemmell and Company Limited, followed by Sir Thomas Tancred then by George Bee and the Dolbel families as part of the old Maungaharuru Station. Later, Herbert Guthrie-Smith obtained the lease of part of the block.

The Crown purchased Te Heru o Tureia from the Maori owners in 1913 and 1925 and the land was subsequently made available by ballots for servicemen returning from World War 1. Further land sales were made to the public after the 1925 purchase.

Much of the land logged was leased and farmed by brothers Bert and Bob Heays who accepted milled timber as royalties for logs extracted.

Manson and Clarke established a sawmill in the 1920s, below the present Boundary Stream Field Centre. Good stands of totara were found close to the mill, along with rimu, matai, red beech, kahikatea and maire.

Farming at Te Rangi

The Heays family settled in the district at the end of World War 1, after brothers Bert and Bob Heays were allocated Te Rangi and Naumai stations by ballots.

The initial tent accommodation was later replaced by a rimu slab whare with a dirt floor and, in time, a house was built.

Wild pigs caused havoc, destroying the camp and in one season killing over 60 percent of lambs. Pigs forced some neighbouring farmers to walk off their land. At Te Rangi, farming methods were altered to raising wethers until the pigs were under control.

Much of Te Rangi was forest and kanuka. The land was cleared by axe and the felled material left to dry. It was then burned, and grass seed sown.

Access to the property was by horse over a rough track. A return trip to Napier took three days. A road was finally completed in 1923. It was contructed using pick and shovel and a horsescoop (a contraption resembling a modern-day scraper, but pulled by a horse). Before this, the sheep were driven to Tutira Station for shearing and dipping and then back to Te Rangi. This required dogs and shepherds to keep the animals moving through Guthrie-Smith's property.
In 1956 electricity finally came to Te Rangi. Power was previously supplied by a generator. Te Rangi developed a deer farm in the early 1970s. Wild deer from the surrounding forests grazing on the pastures at night were captured and released into enclosed deer paddocks. Over 1000 deer were caught over the years and farmed for venison and velvet which is sold to lucrative overseas markets.

Areas of Te Rangi remaining in native forest and vegetation are to be covenanted to protect them from destruction. These areas may act as an alternative food source for some of the fauna found in Boundary Stream Mainland Island.

George Shine

George Shine began farming Rangiora Station in 1929 when it was bush and scrub without a blade of grass. He bought the land from the Crown for 7s 6d an acre.

The land had not been farmed before he took it over and he spent many years clearing and sowing the land. In 1976 the Shine family gifted 80 ha, including Hawke's Bay's highest waterfall and surrounding land, to the Crown. By this time the property was almost entirely in agricultural production. This parcel of land was included in the Boundary Stream Scenic Reserve established in 1979.

Herbert Guthrie-Smith

William Herbert Guthrie-Smith was a farmer, writer, philosopher and pre-eminent naturalist. In 1882, together with a schoolmate relation, he took possession of Tutira Station, which became his home for almost 60 years until his death in 1940.

Guthrie-Smith grazed 30,000 sheep on 61,000 acres at Tutira Station during its peak. The boundaries of the station stretched from the eastern skyline above Lake Tutira, to the banks of the Mohaka and Waikare Rivers.

Much of the land had been cleared by fire hundreds of years before. The forest was further destroyed by the fires of 1860s-70s and the land reverted to bracken fern. Subsequent logging and land development substantially reduced the forested area although the area around and including Boundary Stream was not affected until the 1930s.

After World War 1, he subdivided 5000 hectares of Tutira into smaller farms for returning soldiers. He had already relinquished the leases taken up in the 1890s and the station was then reduced to about 3000 hectares.

It was through his observations in the field that he came to write books and essays about his experiences. He wrote Tutira:The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station. By observation, and through talking to old Maori people, Guthrie-Smith recorded the pre-European history of the area. His journals describe the spread of plants now regarded as pests, the arrival of rabbits, weasels, stoats and ferrets, and the introduction of exotic birds.

Over time, Guthrie-Smith became even more interested in the plight of the original flora and fauna of the land, and applied himself as a naturalist in calling for the preservation of our native species. He became a founding member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, and presented numerous papers to the Royal Society.

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