ASCENT OF MOUNT EGMONT

Hawera Star, Volume L, 19 December 1930, Page 8

ASCENT OF MOUNT EGMONT

NTNETY-FUiST ANXIVEItSAKV. ’J’he first recorded ascent of Mount Egmont by any European .was accomplished on December 19, 1839, by Df. Jirrist Dieffenbaeh. the New Zealand Company’s naturalist, who -came to New Zealand that year with Colonel Wakefield in the Tory. The adventures of Df. Dieffenbaeh in Taranaki, including his account of the ascent, are recorded in the seventh chapter of Walls’ “History of Taranaki.” -One Uebefley, who had been a whaler for some years, accompanied the doctor to tlie summit. ~

Air S. Percy Smith, in his “History arid Traditions of the Taranaki Coast” ("page 1S8) mentions the claim of Taburangi to be the first man who ascended file mountain. Tabu-rangi made the ascent from Karnka-toriga Pa, width was situated on the batiks of the Waiwakniho a Considerable distance no the slopes of the mountain. This would be early in the fifteenth ■century. He is said to have lit a fife on the top to let people see he had aCcohiplishd the climb. Air Smith adds: “In after days, whenever the thin wisps of cloud are seen encircling the summit of tlie mountain and blowing away to leeward like smoke, the Taranaki people say ‘Ah! there is l.ahurangi’s fire!' (to alii a Taliu-rangi). The sacredness of Mount Egmont. which prevailed down to tlie middle of the nineteenth century, was probably due to the mountain heimr. used as a place for the deposit of the holies of tlie dead. It has always been difficult to obtain the help of Afaof is in ascending- the mountain, for it was tapu. Dr. Dieffenbaeh mentions that he found difficulty in persuading the Maoris to aeeomnanv him. hut- two ‘went as far as the snow level, though they declined to proceed any further. Both Wells' “History of Taranaki” :and Smith’s “History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast” may he consulted at the Hawera Public Library.