Mount Egmont’s Secret

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 April 1930, Page 24 (Supplement)

Mount Egmont’s Secret

BY D. J. HUGHES.

(Written for the “Star.”)

Mount Egmont. the doorkeeper of Taranaki's produce store sheltered and sucessfully helped to keep a secret that baffled men, women and children years ago. True, the evergreen mantle that clothes the lower portion of this Dominion’s majestic sentinel harboured law breakers. These men have passed away and the mountain’s secret can now be told. How many more narratives of Egmont’s part in man’s destiny have yet to he chroniclcd? Standing with her hoary head uplifted. , proud and supreme, she stretches out her liquid arms to pour out blessings to aii inhabitants within

sober and nuyself .can say the same for this gossoon here, Teddy.” The five miles of virgin busli encircling the mountain was invaded by the indomitable three poteen makers and a place picked out for operations. It was in a very inaccessible gully alongside a. pure snow-water stream. 'I he only other live inhabitant in the camp other than the men was a bulldog called Barney, to be used for cattle hunting. This dog was worth his weight in gold for this sport, for as soon as a beast was shot at. be would jump straight for the animal’s nose and hang on like grim death.

her radius. She woos at night the dewy liquids to freshen the larder of her subjects. She hypnotises by day the rolling clouds and draws them to her bosom and stores' them for her spouse, the sun. to liberate through her pastures. Woe betide mankind who encroaches on her when she is communing witli the elements. So tread warily and lightly, gentle reader, <m Egmont's white necklace or you will rue it as many have done. Her liquids have not as vet been analysed, but on the New Plymouth side there flows a stream with a peculiarity in so far as it helps to tan the best of leather from hides. In the eighties of last century her green mantle covered the working of a whisky still worked by three men. The names I shall bestow upon them are Mac (the boss), Mick and Teddy, employees. Faith, it was the real poteen this trio brewed on the slopes of Egmont. Mac, who was a typical Irishman, had a section and the butter he made was hard to sell and the price small. One evening lie broached the subject of making whisky, and Mick, who bad previous experience, jumped at the suggestion. “Sure,” says he, “its meself can make it if ye get me a worm.” In

One evening during a lull in the whisky making Mick says, “Teddy, me boy, we must go for meat to-morrow. There has been rain and the tracks can. be followed easily. Sure, Barjjey himself wants a run, so me son, turn out bright and early in the morning.” Teddy awoke at the break of day and 4 could hear Mick singing “The Peeler and the Goat” wliioh was one of his favourite refrains. They hied away westwards above the supplejacks and presently came Barney’s deep bay sounds. ‘ ‘Come on Teddy 1 Hold a whist boy. Look lad, look! a cow and a fif-ten-months calf fat as butter. Good dog, Barney 1 Ho-uld them, ye darlint. Whist awhile, Teddy. Ye stop' here and I’ll crape around and give the calf a bullet.” Bang goes the gun and a yell from Mick. Teddy hurries forward, no sign of anything. Just then a coo-ee from the deep creek nearby. Scrambling down be finds Mick, ■ Barney and the calf all in the shallow water. “Holy Moses!'Did ye ever see tlie loike?” says Mick. “When I fires the baste gave a lape and so did Barney at her nose and begob I found iiim here, hanging on to her still.”

due course Mac gathered all the. information necessary for disposal of the stuff when made and called a consultation with liis employees. “Well, boys! I have decided to erect a still and have arranged for the necessary materials for making poteen including the worm you wanted, Mick.” “Be jabers. Huroo,”. says Mick. “’Tis himself has the head on him.” “Now, hoys, listen to what I have to tell you; nothing must be done or mentioned to a living soul till I have fixed up everything. I have leased that section of McSweenevs next the reserve and we will start erecting the still in one of the gorges in the bush on the slopes of the mountain. X am going to start buying fungus and send it away in wool bales with the kegs packed in the centre. T. will send a few away with fungus in only for a start. Kate’, the cart mare can be used to pack the poteen from the still and we can use her to pack back the empty kegs. You two can cart the fungus to the railway or wherever I send it to. Understand though, ye must give me your oath as to the silence or the three, of us will'-have the

There was a fall of fully fifteen feet to the creek below. This little episode shows the tenacity of the bull dog. Alas! poor Barney, he jumped one day at the nose of a wounded hull which dashed him against a tree, but that is another story. The whisky making was going on successfully and the carting of the bales of fungus to the railway station started. One day, when loading into the trucks one of the bales slipped and a. policeman standing near lent Mick and Teddy a hand. i “There is something rattling like water in this bale, my man,” said the constable. . “Begob, Sargent, say divil a word about it. It is some milk I slipped in for my brother-in-law who does the unloading for the firm.” “Milk! Why it will be sour.” i “Well, if it is what matter, many a good man was reared on sour milk and praties. Troth, sir, X am ton Id fungus is the best cooler you can have. They say in China the ladies use it to cool their poor pinched feet and also make a jelly of it for the face which we call fa.ee cream.”

darbies on us quick and lively. “Sure, your honour!” says Mick, “divil a word will we say, drank or

The constable wais then called away, but Mick got a fright. It seems the fungus ran short and, the keg was not sufficiently covered. Mick’s version of happenings around the whisky still had a droll humour in them. The white native rat so rarely seen now, played a part for, to use his words: “The divils were as bold as brass. They would suck away as the husks from the drainings of the still till they got as tipsy as lords and the way they gallivanted to and fro, sure ye would think they were dancing the ‘Sir Roger de Goverly’ or the ‘lrish Washerwoman.’ Now and thin a mforepork would swoop down on ard bedad. when the bird had gorged himself he woifi-j j,ix to ui.r overhanging 'branch and come tumbling down into the water and float away. Be jabers! Poteen makes a fool of others besides mankind if they take too. much of it.” One time Mac took Teddy’s place at the still and he was put in charge of purchasing fungus from the Maoris. He had ' under him a. new chum Irish lad from one of the cities in the. old land. Teddy having to go away one afternoon when a lot of fungus was expected, lie gave instructions. as to weighing and paying for it. Coming

An Elusive Smoke Spiral .

back about three o’clock in the afternoon he went at once to where the buying was going on. “How much have you bought.” was his first question. The answer was “forty pounds' worth.” “Forty pounds!—at a penny halfpenny per lb. Why, that means six thousand four hundred -pounds of fungus. Where are you putting it? ’ “Oh, at the back.”. What gentle leader, do you think had- happened? This simple Irish new chum lad weighed tiie fungus, paid the Maori and told In in to carry it to the back. The wily Maori carried •it there and took it around to the side entrance and back through the front door again. This lad had to stay on and work out about twenty-five pounds which he had overpaid the natives as l no- refund could he got from them. 11 y gorry, te Maori he too clever for te new chum Irishman!

About this time articles were appearing in the “Hawera 'Star” and “Waimate Witness” about a smoke being seen on the slopes of Egrnont. One. day Mac. hurriedly entered, the camp and inrorcned Mick and Teddy that there was talk or a party from Manaia coming up to try ana locate tne cause of tue smoke. up jumps Mick and says, “iwo of us will camp out m tlie busn to-nignt and set a rata tree on fire a guoct way rrom uere and that will satisfy them.” Tins was done and three pairs or eager eyes scanned the papers tor news, and sure enougn in large type tne mystery was explained" as a “nre from a tree.”

As larger orders were coming in work \\a.-5 earned on continually mulling tue grog, and during ten days of rrosty weatuer when tne atmosphere was clear, tue smoke ironi the still wa,s very visible even as far’-scuta, as Tatea. The matter was again taken m hand and tnree men started from Manaia to investigate. They were met by the cunning urotn of a Mick who was, at that tune looked on as knowing the lteserve better than any other mail. He met them where the Dawson Falls track joins the Reserve at the top of the Manaia Road. Needless to say after spending tnree days and nights in the bush they went back as wise as ever. The noble Mick decoyed them like- a mother duck does from her ducklings. “Faith,” said Mick, “they were in rags when they. -gave it up and you would think they had been digging peat iii the worst bog in ould Ireland.” Alter Mick’s scouting performances with the three men the boss was fidgety and called his two helpers to talk things over. The result was, he decided despite Mick’s protests to- quit the game. Dawson’s track tvas becoming public and settlers were using the Reserve for wintering their cattle. I had a- look at the spot where this still was a few years ago, hut nothing remains, to be seen. It seems fi'om what Mick Told me they dynamited the bank away where it was located. Many a keg of Egmont’s poteen was drunk .in different parts of this Dominion under other brands. It was the real Mackay and if taken neat 'moved the pulses quickly,, but gave nq after effects. One wet day at a race meeting held in. the Taranaki province I saw fully fifty men fighting and Egmont dev kept- them going. Years after this scene 1 questioned Mick and he said. “It’s true for ye—l meself took it straight to the course and it was sold to the poor crathurs without being broke down. No wonder it knocked the poor divils over. It was some of the last we brewed and we made it extra strong.” Well, those were good old days and Egmont still carries on, but the primitive life of man has departed for the modern. Those who have experienced both, will, I am sure, bear me •out when I venture to say the old days had charms and thrills quite as fascinating as it holds for ns to-day.