TARANAKI SPOKEN WELL OF.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9011, 18 February 1891, Page 2

TARANAKI SPOKEN WELL OF.

NEW PLYMOUTH AS OTHERS SEE

IT. We make the following extracts from a book entitled " Round About New Zealand," by Mr E. W. Payton :- " From Manukau Heads to Taranaki we had a very pleasant run in spite of a rather heavy swell, and came to an anchor early the following morning. Here the Rotorua rides at anchor in an unusually calm sea for Taranaki. There is no harbour — no pretence of one, but an open roadstead into which the long lines of swell from the open Pacific seem ever to roll. When I first visited this port we were sent on shore in whale boats, constructed to withstand the severest bumping they frequently got on the beach. Now a long breakwater has been built, and passengers are landed on this from a small steam tug which plies backward and forward ; and on very calm days the steamer comes alongside the breakwater itself . We had, just time to get a walk ashore arid that was all, and before lunch time we were away again bound for Nelson."

In another part of his book he describes New Plymouth as follows :—": — " On one of the most exposed parts of the West Coast of the North Island is situated the pretty town of New Plymouth. All the great bustling ' cities ' of the colony have a most patronising way of trying to snub New Plymouth. " The dullest hole in the colony." " Nothing whatever to do there." " Half the population spend their livss in bed, because if they get up there is nothing to do." A kind Wellington friend was good enough to give mo the above particulars before I had visited New Plymouth myself. I can't say I found his estimate of the place correct ; in fact I have a great liking for this " slow old hole," and I am quite sure that many other towns have very considerable reason to be envioas of it. It's ono groat want iB a good harbor ; but that the inhabitants have tried to remedy by building a massive breakwater, which has already been a great boon to the place. Instead of goingto the shore in whale boats, as was the usual thing until the breakwater was built, passengers are taken on board a steam tug, and landed at the breakwater where they find a train all ready to take them into the town ; and in fine weather the services of the tug are dispensed with, and the steamer itself taken alongside the breakwater. Not very long ago, too, the approach by land from Wanganui was not very convenient, as the railway was not completed ; passengers had to get out of the train at Manutahi, and drive a dozen miles or so to Hawera where they picked up the railway again. All this, however, is done away with now, and the railway runs from Wanganui through to New Plymouth; and, altogether, I think New Plymouth is a town that will before long leave some of the others- that are accustomed to allude to it as a " slow old hole" far behind. There is an enormous extent of rich land in the neighborhood of the town, which is as yet covered with dense bush, but when cleared will help to make Taranaki one of the most important pastoral districts in the colony. At the present time I believe there is a great deal more land cleared, and greater numbers of stock on the land than anyone living outside the province has any idea. New Plymouth is a quiet, unassuming place, and has not done so much to attract immigrants and settlers by exaggerated reports as some districts ; but it seems to me a very good sign that the settlers are perfectly contented with their choice of a country, and rarely evince any disposition to leave it. The town is built close down to the sea, and almost on those wonderful black sands, which contain in some cases as much as 75 per cent, of iron. It is a bright, homely-looking place, with good gardens and shelter trees everywhere. The houses are almost all- of wood, and being all painted a very light colour give the town a vivacious appearance when seen through the luxuriant foliage which abounds round almost every house. Away at the back of the town an enormous extent of bush is to be seen, spreading away up the slope of Egmont, the mighty mountain that^ rules I over these parts. Egmont itself is a curiously regular cone, and in fine weather can be seen from immense distances. Egmont is a one-peaked mountain with an enormous and almost circular base, the circumference of which is about sixty miles. There is a low range of hills jutting out seaward on the western side, but with this exception the cone is a regular cone. I have seen Egmont from every side, and whichever way it is viewed it is a wonderfully imposing mountain ; but I think one gets a truer idea of its proportions when travelling on the eastern side where the railway runs within four or five miles of it. After describing his visit to Parihaka and to Waitara, Uronui and the Mokau, Mr Payton goes on to say, " Waitara, which is situated not far from the mouth of the river of that name, is a bright little township which is 1 endeavouring to do a little shipping trade of its own, instead of sending everything to New Plymouth to be shipped. The steamers of the Northern Shipping Company run up the Waitara river when the tide permits, and take a great many cattle and sheep up to Auck land from this place. "It seems a great pity that the Railway line cannot be continued beyond Now Plymouth and Waitara to join the Waikato line, and so connect Auckland, the largest city in the colony, not only with the South, but also with Taranaki and the magnificent land in the east and north of it. As the railway is planned, and in fact being carried out, there vvi 1 be no connection at all between Taranaki and Auckland without first coming down to Marton and then going over a hundred miles north again through Wanganui and Hawera. The difficulties can scarcely be greater than they aro by taking the line through the King Country, and the distance from Te Kuiti (to which place the northern line is now open) to Marton, is double the distance from Te Kuiti to Waitara. It is to be hoped at least that a junction will be speedily effected by a branch line from Waitara to Taumarunui, or some other suitable place, to obviate the necessity oftravelling from Auckland to New Plymouth, via Marton and Wellington."