“THE CLOUD PIERCER.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 6 May 1925, Page 4

“THE CLOUD PIERCER.”

TARANAKI’S ASNOMER

ITS DEBT TO MOUp EGMONT.

CHAIN OF 150 F/itORIES

Taranaki is a stolen in ie. Mount Egmont is “The Cloud fiercer,” the real Taranaki; and you yonder what the reason is for this mipmer. Forgetting that it was Capts a Cook who gave the name to Egmcfc, you are puzzled why the mountaiii'pst its picturesque and apt title, in iving it to the province; yet there issomething curiously appropriate abo» it all. Taranaki owes everything i Egmont, not even excepting its nam'v an d you think for a moment of how mountain made the province. Yi cannot imagine the province without (S mountain, the thing would. he ipossible (says a writer in the Aucklanfgtar). As soon as Egmont’s snow Lins to thaw spring is coming in I?anaki • when the mountain’s great wile cap slides down as far as Fantham Peak you know that summer is gone Egmont makes the weather and t; seasons, the soul and life of Tnnaki dairying. As you think of th iso dairy factories, you think also c the millions they brought into this um _ try. The climate and the rain are .everything. Egmont is the watery and has given Taranaki a river sysjn that Beats anything else in New ;l a _ n land. But if it keeps fine for lire than a week or so you might find ji r backyard blow un in dust at any tie and track you down in the kitchen r bedroom. The land thirsts for mo til re.

SOME ELUSIVE PROSPERITY. All round Taranaki you see pros perity, bat some of this* is elusive, yoi rind, and many farms are heavily encumbered. It only, seems to confirm what you have seen in Auckland and elsewhere since the land boom. But Taranaki’s land question to-day is tiifling beside the trouble of 80 years ago, q,nd you are reminded by the comparison of the fierce fighting with the Maoris that now happily belongs , a c ‘Lsed epoch in our history. l’h en > as you think of. more subtle troubles since that time,/ you Wonder whether Taranaki will ever have any other industry than dairying. Your attention is drawn, to a vast source of obvious wealth, where chequered and rutile attempts have been made to L im d| an ihdn and steel industry upon the Taranaki ironsand, and an oilylooking puddle, seen causally at . the seaside, calls to mind the. oily failures of recent years, and men ' who have gone bankrupt in that difficult and dangerous enterprise. But you believe that much may still be done; and the foundation laid by dairying appears broad and secure.

Up the streams that flow from Eg-' mont are hydro-electric schemes that drive milking machines . all over the province; and also the sources of municipal. water supplies for a chain of thriving towns. It is the towns - that give expression of the general atmosphere of welfare. v They are the adjuncts of the farms and seem to spread a sense of wellbeing. _ And in the midst of it ail is Egmont Ihe mountain stands there, like a great rangitira, bidding defiance to the lesser peaks across the Wanganui, and giving a curious emphasis to the Maori legend that explains its existence. In the picturesque way of the Maori. Egmont quarrelled with Ruapehu and the rest, and was sent across the river to settle a hundred miles away. There he stands still—a solitary mountain—■ the ffiost perfect cone in the world, according to many travellers, not even excepting Fuji Yama.

I PROUD OF THE MOUNTAIN. Taranaki is proud of its mountain. ‘ Have you seen Egmont?” they always ask. Of course you can see its cloud-capped peak from all over the province. . Oh, but you ought to see the snowv summit,” and as.you see the cloud tong theie like a giant cap you think there must be something wonderful in the veiled prospect. IQ there is anything they pride themselves in more than their - roads it is Mount Egmont. Mention Mount Eden or Rangitoto, and they retort that there are eight thousand feet of Egmont. You .are subdued. You look at Egmont first thing in the morning, and, as you see it loftly- and cloudless, you believe them.

•Vn - -ou w . a run f°r your money in Taranaki you must climb the mountfim • you can motor a hundred miles on the flat and never feel satisfied; but on the four miles to the mountain house you mount three Rangitotos. High up on the slopes you see Taranaki spread out like a map, flat, you thought, but now, it seems to rise to' a distant ridge in the southwards, and on the skyline you see Hawera. THE SMALLEST BOROUGH. Until they added, a hundred acres to Hawera at the beginning of the month, it was the smallest borough in New Zealand, 765 acres exactly, and 250 acres of that in reserves and parks, lou distinguish Taranaki towns by their size; outside New Plvmouth Hawera is the largest. ft has a two-to-on© advantage over New Plymouth in the . density of its population. W hen you ask v r hat they do no one can tell; Taranaki tow-ns have no industries. They are first, and last an appendage of the farming businessanything above the size oi a thousand people or so has its daily paper, generally a four-page issue, but you find no factories, or, more preciselv, no manufactories. - - \

Factoiies are scattered all over th© province. Between Hawera and Opunak you pass four of them in less than 30 miles. A peep at.,the thousands of cheese crates or butter boxes .gives you a lively impression of wealth. Over the Waimate Plains is an excellent factory system that calls attention to the richest farm lands in Taranaki. • One of the factories, at Riverdale, you are surprised to know, is the largest' in the worlds owned by a concern without any branches. Remembering Ivaiipokoliiii, 10 miles away, of course'you don’t beheve it, until you are told pokoum is a factory with eight branches. iNo other concern without branches has so large a factory as Kiverdale.