MEMORIES OF OUR VALLEY by NGAHINATURAE TE UIRA TAHAROA–how isolated it is—a small secluded Maori settlement bounded to the North and East by bush-clad hills; to the South by the Taharoa Lake and to the West by the ever thundering breakers of the Tasman Sea as it meets the expensive sand-dunes of the propossed Iron and Steel Industry. Inland from the sand dunes is the farming land of fertile soil, interspersed here and there with streams and swamps. Taharoa is situated nine miles from the nearest township of Kawhia to the north and sixty miles from Otorohanga and Te Kuiti to the east. Access to Taharoa is difficult and there are two main routes. From Kawhia, one travels by launch across the harbour to Te Maika, where is situated a small grocery store and a post office from which the Taharoa people collect their mail and make odd purchases of food. From Te Maika, one must be a reasonable horseman, for the road that lies ahead is no road, but a track, across mudflats, through hilly bush country, ever winding uphill and downhill, to the inessant slush, slush of hogholes and squetching mud under the horses' hooves for seven miles; then suddenly between the ridges overlooking the fringes of the bush, one sees Taharoa in the distance—a valley-like vision, green, peaceful and secluded. Now perhaps the other route, from Otorohanga or Te Kuiti, past the Waitomo Caves, has one advantage—that is, one can travel by car over the sixty miles to the end of the road—the Taharoa Lakeside. However, in taking this route, one must make arrangements beforehand to be General view of the ore field with the lake on the left and the sea coast on the right. The settlement is in the foreground on the left. (W. Martin photograph)