KOTOMAHANA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1536, 23 December 1873, Page 60

KOTOMAHANA.

The Bay of Plenty Times, of the 13th December, writes: — Mr Domett, in his South Sea jday dream "Ranolf and Amohia"—thus speaks of Rotomahana, the pride and glory of New Zealand, and the main hope of the Bay of Plenty, as the loadstone destined, before long, to attract to our shores wealth, fashion, and rank, invalids, artists, and men of letters : A cataract carved in Parian stone, Or any purer substance known—- * * * * * Each step becomes a terrace broad Each terrace a wide basin brimmed With water, brilliant, yet in hue The tenderest delicate harebell blue, Deepening to violet! *****

The topmost step the pair surmount And 10, the cause of all! ! Look, where upshoots a fuming fount— Up through a blue and boiling pool Perennial—a great sapphire steaming, In that coralline crater gleaming. Upwelling, ever, amethystal, Ebullient comes the bubbling crystal, Still growing cooler and more cool As down the porcelain stairway slips The fluid flint, and slowly drips, And hangs each basin's curling lips With crusted fringe each year increases, Thicker than shear, forgotten fleeces ; More close and regular than rows, Long rows of snowy trumpet-flowers Some day to hang in garden bowers. When strangers shall these wilds enclose. The Melbourne Argus of a recent date says :—" The United States Congress is not altogether indifferent to the health, wefare, and recreation of posterity. It has just distinguished itself by an act which deserves to be imitated elsewhere. Recent explorations of a tract of country in the north-west, which was previously unknown, have disclosed the existence of a magnificent valley, about sixty miles in length and fifty in breadth, at an elevation of 7,400 feet above the sea level, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Besides containing a lake as large as one of the smaller English counties, and abounding in scenery of Alpine grandeur and beauty, this sequestered valley includes ' hundreds of hot springs of endless variety of temperature, mineral composition, and mechanical force, which rise on all the slopes.' Eventually, therefore it may become the sanatorium of North America. Bearing this in mind, Congress has, with a wise forethought, reserved the whole valley in perpetuity as a national park. The novelty and sagacity of this proceeding have attracted attention in the mother country, and have led to the publication of some correspondence in the Pall Mall Gazette with reference to the geyser region in the northern island of New Zealand. One .gentleman, who was cured of rheumatism by bathing in the hot springs of thi3 solfatara, states that he and his companion ' were so struck with the magnificent future which awaits Rotomahana, that we offered the natives .£6,000 for the lake and a narrow belt round its shore—the extent of the whole of which we guessed at 500 acres only.'" Happily, the offer was refused by the Maoris, but does it Dot point out a moral ? A writer on the same subject tells us in an English paper that iu a short time "half Europe shall do homage to the marvellous beauties of incomparable Rotomahana." A colonial contemporary also remarks:—" Our Southern Alps are grand, but the heights of the Himalayas are grander. Our lakes have a thousand rivals; our earthquakes, although sufficiently startling for a novice, are wanting, as yet at least, in the elements most esteemed by sensation seekers: Chili or Peru can beat us hollow. But our bubbling fountains, our cold, tepid, and boiling natural baths, our marble terraces, sculptured by Nature's hand, and altogether passing lovely—where shall we find their counterpart ?" The future of this district, to a very great extent indeed, depends upon our boiling springs and those exquisite pink and white terraced fountains which now lie in solitary loveliness. Rotomahana stands without a peer, and is destined to become one of the greatest, if not the greatest, show place and sanatorium of the world. Last week two tourists returned to Tauranga after "doing" the Lake district. In the course of conversation one gentleman, referring to Rotomahana, said : " There is no place in the world like it—so graceful, so wonderful, so perfect a fairy land. No words can describe it, no pencil pourtray its charms." The other (his companion) simply remarked, " A perfect pile—best diggings out." The conversation reminded the writer of a story related of a clergyman and a tailor visiting together the Falls of Niagara. Quoth the parson in boundless astonishment:—

" Lord, how thy works astound our eyes, And fill our hearts with glad surprise !" The tailor merely made this note, Oh ! what a place to sponge a coat!" But to our moral: The Lake district of the Bay of Plenty would be a source of immense wealth to any person or persons with sufficient enterprise to secure the same from the native owners. Already our spriDgs have drawn the attention of Europe, and who knows, during the present unsettled state of the Rotomahana negotiation, but that some strangers with large capital may come amongst us, and succeed in purchasing and monopolising the coveted section, converting it into a very Tom Tiddler's ground for picking up gold and silver. Such a result would be an irretrievable loss to . the entire colony. Eotomahana will one day be the he' M: resort of half the world, and the Government should therefore leave not a stone unturned to secure the site immediately, and follow the example of our American cousins by reserving it for "national use and enjoyment." . When all arrangements are perfected the authorities could then with perfect propriety open up the territory, and sub-let portions to respectable firms in a position to provide accommodation for visitors to the New Zealand Malvern and Biarritz.