‘Mount Egmont from near the Waimate Pah, Taranake’

‘Mount Egmont from near the Waimate Pah, Taranake’

The New Zealand Company encouraged exploration in the search for suitable land for farming and settlement. Charles Heaphy was employed by the company as a draughtsman and then surveyor. In 1840 he assisted the survey of the west coast of the North Island from Porirua to Ngāmotu in Taranaki. In 1840 he drew Waimate pā (left), with Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont) in the distance. The image was later reproduced as a lithograph in Ernst Dieffenbach’s 1843 volume, Travels in New Zealand. Dieffenbach was the company scientist and also an explorer. He was one of the first two Europeans to climb Mt Taranaki, in 1839.