2-995-789 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Taranaki (New Plymouth), the village-capital of the province of New Plymouth, North Island, New Zealand, 1860. 'The district...has been termed "the Garden of New Zealand;" and, whether regard be had to the serenity of its climate or the fertility of its soil, it is surpassed by no other locality in either island...The town, or rather village, slopes upward from the sea-beach, and, with its neat white houses, contiguous cultivation, green forests, and background of wooded hills, crowned by the snow-capped cone of Mount Egmont, presents a pleasing aspect...Mount Egmont...although not the highest, is certainly the most strikingly-remarkable, mountain in New Zealand; and may be seen from a vessel's deck, in clear weather, from a distance of more than one hundred miles. It rises in a perfect cone, from a base thirty miles in diameter, to a height of 8270 feet above the sea, and presents nearly the same appearance viewed from every point. Its summit, which is an extinct crater, is flattened, and is covered with perpetual snow for nearly a quarter of its entire elevation. Mount Egmont is about fifteen miles inland from the town of Taranaki. The hill to the right near the town is Mount Taranaki, and the buildings on its top are the barracks'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.