3-017-282 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An Exploring Party on the West Coast of New Zealand: mouth of the Wanganui River, 1865. Engraving from a sketch by Albert Walker. 'This name must not be confounded with that of another Wanganui, a settlement on the shore of Cook's Strait, in the Northern Island, between Wellington and New Plymouth. Mr. Walker says, "The scenery at the mouth of the Wanganui is very peculiar. On its south side there rises up a high conical mountain several hundred feet in height, covered with trees and shrubs to its summit; this is joined to the mainland, which is also high and cliffy, by a long, narrow neck of land, also covered with trees and shrubs. There is also a good-sized sand island just at the mouth of the river. It is a large river, but the entrance is too narrow ever to render it of any use for vessels. From this neighbourhood we could see the highest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook, which is near 13,000 ft. in height. We conjecture that the Wanganui takes its rise from somewhere in the neighbourhood of this mountain".' From "Illustrated London News", 1865.