ANGLING AND DEER-STALKING AT MOUNT EGMONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9064, 26 May 1888, Page 5

ANGLING AND DEER-STALKING AT MOUNT EGMONT.

Our Manaia (Hawera county) correspondent write 3 :—Several gentlemen in this district, notably Messrs. Yorke and Livingstone, have taken great interest in the

stocking of our numerous streams and rivers with fish ; and already some of our settlers of piscatorial tendencies have been fairly successful in enticing some of the finny tribe into their baskets, where eventually they graced their tables, and proved a delectable addition to their ordinarj' diet. Your "own," though not an angler, has had the pleasure of tasting more than one bonne mouche by the courtesy and kindnese of the secretary of the Hawera Acclimatisation Society ; and, though he relished this change in his food, yet ho must confess that, in his humble opinion, the flavour of the trout caught in these rivers is not so sweet as that of those caught in the everflowing, ever-clear, and sparkling rivers of England, the Dore, the Wharfe, the Don, &c. The fish are coarser and grosser in their nature; they are not so beautifully mottled as the English trout. But doubtless this is owing to the large quantity of feed they find in our rivers; and, as they get more numerous, and have to struggle harder for their very existence, they will become finer in shape and appearance, and also firmer in the " flesh." In t«*.e course of a year or two Auckland tourists who wish "to do" Mount Egmont will be able to while away a few hours most profitably with rod and line by wading up some of our lovely streams; and, if they bring a sketch book and pencil with them, they will also be able to take some very pretty, if not magnificent, scenes. There was some talk a few months ago about placing a few red deer at the foot of the mountain, bnt I believe the ranger in the Wairarapa district has some difficulty in supplying this order. Should we succeed in getting red deer well established round the foot of our mountain, we shall then be able to offer unexceptionable opportunities for tourists of all sizes, all ages, and all proclivities. For the young and lusty, mountain climbing; for sportsmen, deer-stalking, coursing, pheasant shooting, and angling; for artists, lovely views of hill and dale, pretty nookh and corners in our rivers, overhung with innumerable ferns ; and last, but not" least, in this utilitarian age of steam, electricity, and dynamite, for the city man, bent on pleasure, but with an eye for the main chance, we have a district teeming with wealth, buS which as yet cannot be turned into cheques or gold. We have iron-sand on our shores, graphite on the south side of the mountain, the existence of such having been proved by the finding of a waterworn piece in the Kaupokonui River, a forest containing thousands upon thousands Of tons of potash and charcoal, and a soil that will grow almost anything; and yet Wβ are poor! Wβ wanb brains, capital, and population.