The First Ascent of Mt. Egmont -- Centenary Of Dr. Dieffenbach's Climb Asuggestion was recently made at Hawera, that alpine clubs and other interested organisations such as local bodies should meet to discuss the best means of celebrating the centenary of the first ascent of Mt. Egmont by a European, Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach having reached the summit of the mountain on 23rd December, 1839. On the 16th of August, 1839, the New Zealand Company's vessel Tory came within sight of the shores of the North Island. On board the little ship was Dr. Ernest Dieffenbach, a naturalist in the employ of the company. He was destined to become known as one of the most painstaking and reliable of the early explorers. This man of science has left behind a splendid record of the New Zealand that was, and it is characteristic of him that whilst he writes vividly and in an interesting fashion of his discoveries and geological and botanical findings, he tells us but little of himself. We can, only by reading between the lines, as it were, get a glimpse of his indomitable courage in the face of hardships and difficulties. To read his two volumes, "Travels in New Zealand," published in London in 1843, is to draw aside a veil and be transported to a land that we find hard to believe was our own New Zealand a hundred years ago. It was late in the month of November, 1839, when the ship was sailing up the