"Doctor Bronson says prejudice against railways is not confined to savages, as he has known fairly intelligent men in New England and other parts of the United States resolutely refuse to trust themselves inside a railway-carriage under any circumstances. Our host tells us that the Maoris were once under the impression that the Englishmen had a demon of some kind chained in the locomotive and compelled to move it by turning a crank. Their more intelligent men have learned the power of steam and explained it as far as possible to the rest, so that the demon theory exists no longer.
MOUNT EGMONT AND RANGES.
"We left behind us the provincial district of Wellington, and entered that of Taranaki. The district takes its name from the Taranaki mountain, which has been called Egmont by the English, and is so known on the maps. Mount Egmont is a cone eight thousand three hundred feet high, and volcanic. We wanted to ascend it, but had not the time to do so, and consoled ourselves with the reflection that we were saved from a great deal of fatiguing work. It is no easy matter to ascend this mountain; those who have undertaken it have never shown any anxiety to repeat the journey. The mountain lies close to the sea, as you will observe by a glance at the map, and serves as a magnificent landmark for sailors approaching this part of the coast.
"New Plymouth has a population of some four thousand or more, and is the port of a section of country which is said to be very fertile, as it can grow nearly every English fruit and cereal. It was settled in 1841, but suffered much during the Maori wars, as most of the natives in the district of Taranaki were hostile. They showed us several factories, saw-mills, and a large flouring-mill, and they called our attention to an establishment for making iron from the sands of the sea-shore.
"All along this coast of North Island there is a large quantity of iron in the sand, sometimes as high as seventy per cent. The people call it steel, but it is really iron; it is in fine particles, just like the iron-sands of the southern shore of Long Island, near New York. They said the iron-works at New Plymouth had never been prosperous, as they could not get the proper flux for the metal; if they could only do this their success would be enormous. Doctor Bronson told them that exactly the same thing had been tried near New York for utilizing the black sand of Long Island, and thus far it had been a failure. The large proportion of iron in the sand is noticeable, not only to the eye but to the sense of touch; as you pick up a handful its unusual weight at once calls attention to it.
"We visited a farm near New Plymouth, where we spent a night and a day listening to stories of the troublous times of the Maori war, riding or walking through finely tilled fields, and looking at herds of cattle and flocks of sheep which were well calculated to excite the admiration of all who are interested in grazing or agricultural pursuits.
"One gentleman whom we met was an old settler who had fought the Maoris, and had twice seen his farm devastated and his fields ploughed up to destroy the growing crops. On the road near his farm a party of Europeans was waylaid and murdered one day by the Maoris, and it was only an accident which prevented his being one of the party. As long as the troubles with the Maoris continued the district of Taranaki was in a precarious state, as the lands could not be occupied; but with the establishment of peace there was every reason to believe their settlement would be a matter of steady progress.
"We returned to New Plymouth in time to take the semi-weekly coasting steamer for Wellington, where we stopped a few hours and then continued across Cook Strait to Nelson and Picton, taking steamer at the latter place for Port Lyttelton, on the east coast. The route is an interesting one, as the steamer is for most of the time close to the coast, which is bold and rugged and contains many little bays that remind us of the fiords of Norway or the inlets on the coast of Newfoundland or New Brunswick.