THE ROTORUA TOWNSHIP.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2155, 21 January 1881, Page 3

THE ROTORUA TOWNSHIP.

Tho “ Australasian ” in a recent article, highly approves of the proposal of the Government to survey a township at .Rotorua, in tho Hot Likes country, and considers that if the proper facilities are afforded, a great sanatorium would grow up in a place so admirably adapted by nature for the purpose, A tract of country so peculiarly endowed by nature with strange, picturesque aspects and extraordinary conditions can hardly, says that journal, fail to attain a social future as unique as its natural formation. With its hot springs of many kinds, its sulphur baths, which have been so long resorted to by Maoris for curative purposes, and its interesting natural features of so many diverse attractions, the region appears to bo predestined to the great sanatorium of Australasia. What is required is, first, that the whole region possessing these remarkable characteristics should bo reserved by the state for public uses, and should not, by means of any management with the Natives, or in any other way, be allowed to pass into the hands of private persons. The Government of the United States, finding i'solf in tho possession of a tract of country on the Yellowstone River, exhibiting equally striking features, wisely resolved to set it aside for the recreation and benefit of the people and posterity for all time as a great National Park. Next it will be necessary for the New Zealand Government to encourage private enterprise to dovelopo the capabilities of this wonderful region by establishing townships as required, forming roads, and aiding tho object lu any practical way. We are glad to note that the Government is negotiating to acquire from the Native race the ownership of some of this country still claimed by the Maoris, and it is to bo hoped that the whole territory of this New Zealand Wonderland, as Mr Senior called it in his recent book “Trout and Travel,” will be secured in the same manner. There is in tho Rotorua district capacity for tho most diversified, wonderful, picturesque, and, perhaps, salutary sanatorium in the world, and all that is necessary is to aid its development in its'earlier stages.