Tauhinukorokio / Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant / Tauhinukorokio is located in the Port Hills and is {{convert|499|m}} high.{{cite web |title=Decisions of The New Zealand Geographic Board |url=http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/consultation-decisions/decisions-archive/20010914 |publisher=Land Information New Zealand |access-date=6 April 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130506163325/http://www.linz.govt.nz/placenames/consultation-decisions/decisions-archive/20010914 |archive-date=6 May 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |last=Harriss |first=Gavin |title=Topomap |url= http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz30192/Mount%20Pleasant/Canterbury |access-date=6 April 2013}} On its northern slope is the Christchurch suburb of Mount Pleasant, and on its southern side is Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō.

The Māori name of the hill is Tauhinu Korokio, which refers to two native plants.{{cite web |title=Tauhinu Korokio |url= http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/tikoukawhenua/tauhinukorokio/ |publisher=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=31 March 2013}} The first, Tauhinu, is a cottonwood (Ozothamnus leptophyllus) of the genus Ozothamnus. Korokio is a densely branched Cotoneaster (Corokia cotoneaster).{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=89}} The New Zealand Geographic Board officially changed the name to Tauhinukorokio / Mount Pleasant in September 1948, which was gazetted in the New Zealand Gazette 1949 on page 858.

The European name was given by crew of HMS Pegasus when the coastal survey of Canterbury was undertaken in 1809.{{cite web |url= http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/PlaceNames/ChristchurchPlaceNames-A-M.pdf |title=Christchurch Place Names: A-M |last=Harper |first=Margaret |publisher=Christchurch City Libraries |pages=146–147 |access-date=31 March 2013}}{{sfn|HightStraubel|1957|p=35}} Joseph Thomas, the chief surveyor of the Canterbury Association, climbed the mountain in late 1848 immediately after arriving in Canterbury, and although being aware of the European name, renamed the hill Mount Cavendish in honour of Lord Richard Cavendish, a member of the management committee of the Canterbury Association.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=90}} The name did not come into common use and was eventually transferred to an adjacent hill.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=90}}

The hill once held a Kāti Māmoe pā. Approximately 300 years ago, it was overtaken by Te Rakiwhakaputa of Ngāi Tahu. When the first European settlers arrived, the remains of the pā could still be seen a little to the north of the peak.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=89}}

Captain Thomas, chief surveyor for the Canterbury Association, chose{{when|reason=What date did he make this decision in 1848 or 1849?|date=February 2021}} the hill as the base trig station for the survey of the Canterbury settlement.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=90}}

The first European to farm on the mountain was Joseph Greenwood of Purau, who took up land in 1846 and built a stockman's hut near the peak. When Greenwood left for Motunau in May 1847, he sold the land to Rhodes brothers (William Barnard and George).{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=90}}

Edward Ward, the eldest brother of Crosbie Ward, was one of the Pilgrims. On his first day in New Zealand, having arrived on the Charlotte Jane, he climbed Mount Pleasant to get a view of the Canterbury Plains. He stood by the hut built by Charles Crawford,{{Inconsistent|date=February 2021|reason=The article says Greenwood built the hut in 1846, or were there are 2 different huts built by different people at different times, for some reason? Explain this, or was Crawford occupying Greenwood's hut.}} who was managing Mount Pleasant for the Rhodes brothers, when he remarked the following:{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=90}}

All around the soil teemed with vegetable productions – wild oats, ripe sowthistle, plantain, groundsel & other plants grew large and strong. There was a track of a running stream hard by, but springs everywhere. I could have wished much to have bought the house and all, just as it stood. It faced the N.E. and the first point of the land where it meets the River Heathcote. Being rather too high upon the hill was its only disadvantage.

Ward did buy Ōtamahua / Quail Island instead, but drowned together with his brother Henry in Lyttelton Harbour in June 1851.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|pp=17–19}}{{cite news |title=JOURNAL OF THE WEEK. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18510628.2.8 |access-date=6 February 2021 |work=Lyttelton Times |issue=25 |volume=I |date=28 June 1851 |page=5}}

File:Mt Pleasant Tea House.png

Major Alfred Hornbrook{{sfn|Scholefield|1940|p=413}} arrived in Lyttelton in September 1849 and was well established by the time the first wave of settlers (called 'The Pilgrims') arrived on the First Four Ships in December 1850.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|pp=90–91}} With the profits that Hornbrook made from his hotel and trading post,{{Specify |reason=Which one and where were these establishments? Was this in Lyttelton? |date=February 2021}} he bought Mount Pleasant from the Rhodes brothers in March 1852. Major Hornbrook is described as a rather eccentric person, but his public-spirited character also saw him signalling all ships arriving into Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō from the top of Mount Pleasant. Through a public subscription in 1853, a telescope, flagstaff and a set of flags were paid for. The walking track from adjacent Mount Cavendish down into Lyttelton township was Major Hornbrook's route for getting provisions to his hut on top of Mount Pleasant, and it is still known as Major Hornbrook's Track. Hornbrook went bankrupt in 1871 at a time when he owned 47,000 sheep across three stations (his Mount Pleasant run had 6,000 sheep), and the land was sold to Richard May Morten and William White.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|pp=91–92}} Morten and White dissolved their partnership in 1879 and put up the land for auction.{{non sequitur|date=February 2021 |reason=What partnership was this about? How long did it last for and why did it dissolve?}} Both of them bid for it, and Morten purchased the {{convert|6000|acre}} at £6 per acre.

After Morten's death, on 20 August 1909, the land (by then {{convert|6500|acre}} and stretching along the hills from Godley Head to St. Martins) was subdivided.{{cite news |title=MR R. M. MORTEN |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19090821.2.66 |access-date=7 February 2021 |work=The Press |issue=13507 |volume=LXV |date=21 August 1909 |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |page=10}}{{cite news |title=OBITUARY. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19090821.2.85 |access-date=7 February 2021 |work=Lyttelton Times |issue=15079 |volume=CXX |date=21 August 1909 |page=10}} After various bequests of land and reserves, including some for the Summit Road, were made, the homestead block and 36 section of various sizes for building sites and small farms were put up for auction on 23 March 1912.{{cite news |title=MOUNT PLEASANT. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19120307.2.17 |access-date=7 February 2021 |work=The Press |issue=14297 |volume=LXVIII |date=7 March 1912 |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |page=4}}{{cite news |title=AUCTIONS. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19120323.2.80.1 |access-date=7 February 2021 |work=Lyttelton Times |volume=CXXIII|issue=15884 |date=23 March 1912 |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |page=16}} The largest remaining block had {{convert|1500|acre}}, was owned by J. S. Scott and later on his son Peter Scott, and stretched from Mount Pleasant to the Rapaki Track.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|pp=92–93}}

The old Hornbrook homestead just below the summit burned down just before World War I,{{clarify|date=February 2021 |reason=When? What does "just before WWI" mean in terms of months or years? A progress report on the Summit Road from January 1911 indicates the homestead had already burnt down by then. See Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15509, 9 January 1911, Page 4}} and tearooms and accommodation opened in March 1914 on the site. The buildings, no longer accessible to the public,{{Explain|date=February 2021|reason=Which buildings and why are they no longer accessible? Unprofitable? Hazard? etc. Untold story.}} are still present and are located just above the junction where Mount Pleasant Road meets the Summit Road.{{sfn|Ogilvie|2009|p=92}}

Between late 1942 and early 1943, a heavy anti-aircraft artillery (HAA) battery was established near the summit. A total of 91 buildings were erected, and the battery was staffed between January 1943 and September 1944. It was never used in combat.{{cite web |title=Historic Mt Pleasant Heavy Anti-aircraft Artillery Battery |url= http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by-region/canterbury/christchurch-and-banks-peninsula/mt-pleasant-heavy-anti-aircraft-artillery-battery/ |publisher=Department of Conservation |access-date=31 March 2013 |date=March 2000}}

After the Second World War the New Zealand Post Office used the peak for land mobile radio services.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021|reason=Sources needed to explain various telecommunications uses visible.}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book

| title = A History of Canterbury: Volume I : to 1854

| volume =

| last1 = Hight | first1 = James

| last2 = Straubel | first2 = C. R.

| year = 1957

| publisher = Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd

| location = Christchurch

}}

• {{cite book

| title = Ōtamahua/Quail Island : a link with the past

| last = Jackson

| first = Peter

| edition = 2nd

| year = 2006

| publisher = Chaucer Press Ltd

| location = Christchurch

}}

• {{Cite book

| edition =

| publisher = Phillips & King Publishers

| isbn = 978-0-9583315-6-2

| last = Ogilvie

| first = Gordon

| authorlink = Gordon Ogilvie

| title = The Port Hills of Christchurch

| location = Christchurch

| year = 2009

}}

• {{cite book | editor-last = Scholefield | editor-first = Guy | editor-link = Guy Scholefield | title = A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : A–L | volume = I | year = 1940 | publisher = Department of Internal Affairs | location = Wellington | url = https://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/documents/dnzb-1940/scholefield-dnzb-v1.pdf | access-date = 6 October 2013}}

Category:Mountains of the Canterbury Region