Taranaki, like the rest of New Zealand, remained undiscovered for a very long time. To explain, if 1000 years equalled one day, Mt Taranaki erupted to life over 350 years ago, Maori appeared yesterday and European emigrants arrived three minutes ago.

And what a day it’s been! Maori found dense forest full of birds, including the giant moa, and the sea full of fish. But invasion threats from Waikato tribes in the early 19^th century forced an exodus of Taranaki people.

While they were away, as fate would have it, the first of the English emigrants arrived in 1841. They were an industrious bunch and set about making their New World. However, when Maori returned, they objected vigorously to their land being sold to pakeha (white man).

Life went on and by 1850, with 4000-acres of wheat, oats, barley, and potatoes, Taranaki became known as The Garden of New Zealand. By 1853, two million acres formed the province of New Plymouth, changing to Taranaki five years later.

No Taranaki tribe signed the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and in 1860, Wiremu Kingi, principal chief of the North Taranaki tribes, objected to a lesser chief’s false sale of Waitara land. Governor Browne viewed this as sedition and, proclaiming martial law, physically forced Maori off their land. This sparked the decade long Taranaki wars.

During this conflict, in 1865, the first of over 50 oil wells were sunk at Moturoa, New Plymouth. It produced Taranaki’s own fuel brand, Peak, but volume was low, with total production at the time of its demise in 1972 being 220,000 barrels.

Although New Plymouth still had no port, river ports at Waitara, Patea, Mokau and Opunake helped Taranaki become one of New Zealand’s most densely settled areas, with the population increasing from 4500 in 1871 to 15,000 in 1881.

The first co-operative dairy factories opened in Inglewood and Opunake in 1885, leading the way to this province’s biggest industry. During the 1890’s, Taranaki’s population grew faster than anywhere else in New Zealand. The first 20 years in the 20^th century saw 95 butter and 21 cheese factories change to 26 butter and 116 cheese factories.

When milk tanker collections started in 1956, it was to be less than 20 years before the 115 dairy factories dotted around the province closed down in favour of what is now the largest single-site dairy factory in the Southern Hemisphere at Hawera.

Vast reserves of natural gas were discovered at Kapuni in South Taranaki in 1959.Ten years later, more was discovered offshore at the Maui fields. This led the way to the $2-billion Motunui synthetic petrol plant and $500-million Waitara Valley methanol plants being built, supporting a $2-billion energy industry today.