Greg Smith: City's volcanoes deserve World Heritage status

Volcanic cones such as Mt Eden are visible reminders of Auckland's past. Photo / Martin Sykes

Ferdinand von Hochstetter, after visiting Auckland in 1858, wrote, "Der Isthmus von Auckland ist zugleich eine der eigentümlichsten vulkanischen Gegenden der Erde".

This weighty statement describes Auckland as one of the most special volcanic regions of the Earth.

Hochstetter made a detailed geological examination of the Auckland region, particularly its volcanoes. His scientific findings are regularly referred to and he has an assured place in any geological history of New Zealand.

Less well known are his comments on the Maori heritage he witnessed on the volcanic cones. However, these comments, too, are significant, because, almost by default, they make him one of the earliest exponents of World Heritage status for the Auckland volcanic field.

Hochstetter was not a champion of Maori culture. However, his comments regarding the archaeology of the cones are accurate and valid.

While being a trained scientist, Hochstetter was also a product of German Romanticism, with its tendency to see subjects with an emotional intensity:

"And as the crater on the top has remained as it were a scar of the fiery combat in the bowels of the Earth, so the terraces with their deep holes and ditches are the scars that remind one of the bloody combat of nations long passed away."

While Maori would dispute "long passed away", and rightly so, the "combat of nations" is something that few Europeans have really understood. The tendency has been to see Maori as one group and then lament the difficulty and complexity around Maori issues.

But one glance at the volcanic cones should tell us that great forces crossed these lands before any Europeans arrived. One glance should tell us Treaty settlements will be long and difficult.

With his German background, Hochstetter had a good understanding of the "combat of nations". Germany was a hotchpotch of independent nations until unification between 1850 and 1870, strangely with parallels to the Maori King movement of the same time.

Germans had to defend themselves not only from outside ethnicities, but also from their own fellow Germans. Their landscape is littered with the residue of this history.

Hochstetter saw the comparison with his own native land:

"And these extinct volcanoes were at that time acting the part of mountain forts like the castles of the middle ages. By their commanding position and the prospect far o'er the country, they were exceedingly well adapted for watch towers and forts."

The problem remains that few other Europeans have been able to see the Auckland landscape in the same terms. There exists in New Zealand an almost constant popular belief that there is no real history here.

This is often stated by those returning from Europe who have been overawed by its medieval architecture. Little do we realise that for the price of a bus ticket, we can have the same experience here if we open our eyes.

Hochstetter got it absolutely right when he wrote:

"The observer is justly awestruck with astonishment in seeing how ingeniously and practically the Maori had planned their forts, and what colossal works they were capable of executing."

New Zealanders seem to be able to extol the ingenious and colossal works of Europe, usually marvelling at the hand-wrought nature of them, but remain indifferent to the parallel structures in our own country.

The pa on the volcanic cones are colossal labours, especially in view of the relatively small population and the tools to create them.

And if New Zealanders thought about the history behind this legacy, it is no different from that of Europe, namely expansionism, revenge, broken treaties, and all the other foibles that pervade every human culture.

From the beginning of the 20th century, calls were made for the protection of the volcanic heritage, but the century went by with more losses than gains.

The 21st century is no different - any call for more protection is usually resisted by those who have probably already done the most damage, namely quarriers and infrastructure providers.

Those agencies which one could expect to protect the heritage seem weak voices, if they speak at all.

The Crown, via the Department of Conservation, has been the major landowner of Auckland's residual volcanic heritage. However, in large part the department has ducked out of the debate by saying the local authorities administered the volcanic cones and protection was down to them.

But these authorities have also had other responsibilities, namely the city's development. This was nearly always going to clash with heritage protection.

With change of ownership on so many of the city's maunga, a new model of governance for the volcanic heritage has to be found. If protection is to be effective, then World Heritage status has to be the main focus.

World Heritage status is bigger than regional politics, as its definition would imply. Direction for it has to come from the Crown, with iwi leading the way. No other arrangement is likely to work, as the incontrovertible truth exists that it is Maori heritage that will be showcased.

In the mid 19th century, Hochstetter saw something in Auckland that could hold its own on the world stage.

It is now time for New Zealanders to see our landscape in the same way, before more is lost of something which exists nowhere else in the world and of which we have every right to be proud.

* Greg Smith is spokesman for the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society.