SECTION VIII page 174 - 225 [8 MB, PDF] - Christchurch City Libraries

works ; and other maps showed the boundaries of 1 4 governmental bodies' dbtri~ts
and the schools and post-offices. A historical map showed the sites of the various foaified
pas and dlagea. past and present, of the lKaori tribes in Taranalii. On either side of
the rear wall were two large panels lettered with the values of different Taranaki industries
for the past twenky-five years, and the values of the various of land in
the province. On the side walls were photoEpphic euhgements illustrative of the
tourist resoums and sceuic beauties of the province from the Mount Egmont National
Park to the Mokau River.
Taranalti's ph.pical character combines charm of landscape with fruitfulness of soil
iu a high degree ; the two. in fact. almost seem interdependent, for the very feature of
the province that gives it its chiefest quality of scenic grandeur is also
The the pat source of its productiveness-the splendid mountain-peak of
Epnt. Lifting away up to the clouds in a gracefull J-tapering white
spear-head, its gentler slopes covered with blue forests, its massive
base falling ,ptly awa? into the well-wooded and richly pastoral lands, Egmont
is indeed. as it looLc, the Mountain Father of the promce. Far removed from other
high moo~~ntains, it stands alone, commanding and enriching all that , dy region that
curves iu a sn-eeping half-moon of coast-line round from Faitam in the north to Pafa
in the south, a snov landinark for the sailor a hundred miles out in the Tasman Sea.
shapely a volcanic cone as Ten& or Japan's sacred mountain, its 8,260 ft. of
height seenu even more, so much does its remoteness from other peaks appear to
magnify its altitude as well as its rnajestp of form. It \ras rather a pity, perhaps,
that the court did not contain. in addition to its photo,pphic pictures, sorue work
ill colours that would hare given the stranger an adequate idea of the majesty of form
aud beaut;r of hue of the ancient Puke-hauppa. However, not very far away, on the
outer wall of the Tourist Department's Court, there hung a painting by Nr. E W.
Christmas, which showed Tarauak's peak just as one often sees it, with the wispy. clouds
floating ahnt its snow-tipped summit and hazy blues etherealisig its gentle base
\\-here the timbr-la~rds and pastures meet.
Hany thi~qp s?mbolized Taranak's solid prosperie to-day, fro111 panels lettered
with the aggregate values of difIerent industries of the pro~irrce for the past twenty
five ?-ears to various articles of ironware manufactured from the black titarlifernus
sand that corers the Taranaki beaches from the Yohu River mouth down to Pates.
These vast clepits of ironsaild now lie waste and unutilised, but this at present refractoq-
nlineral is the prophesied source of enormous future n-ealth: and the is very
pos"bl?- close at halid hen on Tarann)ii's shorn n-ill be seer1 large iron-fou~ldries, and
\vllcn these black sea-sar~ds and the pat iron-ores of Parapara in Kelson nill furnish
Sew 7mland with all the pig-iron and the steel which she has to-day to import fro111
the other end of the world. Another source of possible peat wealth in the future is
Tarnnaki'k petroleum : a six-foot-high rnodel of the petroleuln bore .and demck at
Xoturoa near Xen- Plynlouth was placed on view in the court.
Trout-fishing. to be enjoyed in the nunlerous clear strealus that flow fro^:^ Xomt.
Epnont. is oile of Taraualii's special attractions, and two fine specimens of rainbowand
bro\\-~l trout caught in the district were shown
An interesting framed picture, a copy of an old en,mviug, carricd one back to the
wild early dams of Tarallah. It represented the landing from the schooner " Triton "
of one of the piorleer missionaries, the Rev. C Creed, with his wife, on the Taranaki
beach. near where the tom of Kew Pl?mouth now stands, in 1841. In the picture,
ME. Creed is being carried ashore through the surf from the schooner's boat b~ a band
of seven &ori girls, all naked to the waist, and on the beach a crowd of mat-garbed
h'atives are waiting to welcome the " mihinare " and his lady.
The decorative effect of this little court was largely due to the hendsome front,