THERMAL SPRING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 47, 14 August 1939, Page 7

THERMAL SPRING

NEW SUPPLY FOR PRIEST BATH OLD SOURCE FAILS After over thirty years of faithful service the famous main Priest spring which has supplied the full supply of Priest water for the mam Rotorua batli buildings has become so varied in its moods that it nas been discarded and a new spring has been opened up to supply the main baths. One of the essentials of the mineral spring supplies for the purposes of the baths n that, they should main tain a .fairly stp;ulv temperature level. The Priest Spring has fulfilled all recmiremcpts for many years past but during the past four or five weeks the temperature has shown such wide fluctuations that the supply of Priest water for curative nurooses has been seriously affected. Tt was accordingly decided to open no a Priest Spring which was known to exist near the main baths buildings and which had been tapped some years ago for experimental pur noses. On that occasion it was found that an excellent suoplv of Priest water could be obtained and when the snring wan a,</ain opened no, it was found that the supply still existed. Test pumpings were carried out at this spring last week over a period of three hours w ? hen it was found that two thousand gallons of water an hour could be. pumned fom the spring without appreciably diminishing its (low. The average tempera,, ture of this water was 14fi degrees and since this is considerably lvgher than the temperature required for treatments, it will be to cool it to the required temperature. Tn this respect the new supply is not so suitable as .the old which could be led into the building at 'ts normal temperature.