Passion runs high for his homeland

SOUTH: MukaMukaiti (Little Mukamuka) Stream denotes the southern extremity of true Wairarapa and flows into the sea close to where Rod Griffith is standing.

Retired Masterton man Rod Griffith knows what he is talking about when he talks Wairarapa. The 78-year-old has lived in the district all his life and worked on the land over most of it, north and south of his Masterton home. For that reason ,Mr Griffith becomes a little agitated when people fail to credit Wairarapa with being the size and scale it is. He is a stickler for recognising the gazetted area that is Wairarapa, and is not a supporter of those who carve off Tararua as being a separate entity. Mr Griffith has no problem with recognising Bush as being part of the wider Wairarapa and therefore is content with the term Wairarapa-Bush. In this article, he tells chief reporter Don Farmer — in his own words — why he feels the way he does

ABOUT 10 years ago two women were speaking at a gathering in the church at Castlepoint . They were there on behalf of the Wellington Regional Council to tell people the history of the district.

I asked them about the history of the coast to the north and was told, by one of them, there was no history to the north.

When I asked her where the northern boundary of Wairarapa was, she said it was the Mataikona River.

I pointed to Cape Turnagain and said the North Wairarapa/Southern Hawke's Bay boundary was about two miles south of the cape but she just walked away from me.

Since then I have asked many people where the boundary was.

Most - apart from some at Herbertville, Akitio and Puketoi - say it is the top of Mount Bruce because that is the watershed for the Makakahi River, which flows into the Manawatu River.

Now that would put would the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in Manawatu.

I have spoken to people about the Akitio and Owahanga Rivers that flow into the Pacific Ocean but when I ask where the boundary is they often disagree.

In the years following 1845, Wairarapa was infested by scab, a sheep mite in which the female burrows under the animal's skin, the irritation causing sheep to rub against fences, trees or rocks.

Wool fell from the animals, revealing a greenish scab.

A fence was built along the boundary between Akitio Station and Pipi Bank Station to stop sheep from straying into Hawke's Bay.

This fence was built roughly on the Wairarapa/Hawke's Bay boundary.

All sheep leaving Wairarapa had to be dipped. The Waimata Stream was dammed.

Water overflowed into depressions in the ground, tobacco growing on a reserve on the Pipi Bank Station side was boiled in water and added to the water from the stream. The sheep were forced into it to emerge, dipped, on the Hawke's Bay side. That sheep fence was later burned in a bush fire and was not replaced.

In 1884, a rabbit-proof fence known as the Southern Hawke's Bay Rabbit Fence was built. This followed the Wellington provincial boundary, also the North Wairarapa/Southern Hawke's Bay boundary.

It starts at the mouth of the Waimata Stream where it runs into the Pacific, about 5km south of Herbertville.

The fence, built from 1884 to 1891, was 52 miles (83km long) and cost in today's money about $24,960 to construct.

It ran to the Oporae Hill on the northern end of the Puketoi Ranges to a bluff above the Manawatu River.

Rabbits were a problem for years and there were gangs rabbiting all over Wairarapa.

In 1935 alone there were seven gangs on Owahanga Station and one gang, which included Harry McLean later the boss of the Wairarapa/East Coast Rabbit Board, was known to have exported 60,000 skins.

The North Wairarapa/Southern Hawke's Bay boundary continues on to just south of Woodville, to the Manawatu Gorge, up to the top of the Tararua Range, along the Pahiatua Track, then south to the Rimutaka Summit.

The boundary continues along the Rimutakas to MukaMukaiti (Little Mukamuka) Stream then down the stream to the sea, which is the boundary between South Wairarapa and Hutt Valley, also the boundary between Wharekauhau Station in Wairarapa and Orongorongo Station in Hutt Valley.

We live in the best country in the world and Wairarapa is the best district in New Zealand.

About half Tararua district is North Wairarapa and if we don't accept that, we lose Pukaha Mt Bruce, Pahiatua, which has the best-known brewery in the country, the Fonterra factory, radio Eketahuna - the best radio station - and Pongaroa and Akitio, which are both worth a look.

There is more to Wairarapa than just Greytown and Martinborough and a lot more history, both Maori and Pakeha, than most places in New Zealand.

I want to see a "Welcome to Wairarapa" sign not just at the Rimutaka Summit but at the top of the Pahiatua Track, as you exit the Manawatu Gorge and on State Highway 2 north of Waione, where the true boundary crosses the Akitio River and State Highway 52.