KUMARA TO ROTORUA AND THE HOT SPRINGS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2891, 3 February 1886, Page 3

KUMARA TO ROTORUA AND THE HOT SPRINGS.

_ —♦- [By a Correspondent.] RoTOitUA, January 19^ The factotum of Rotorua is the Government agent, a man bursting with a sense of his own self-importance. The Road Board consists of a Maori chief (wbo never attends), the doctor, with the Government agent as chairman, the last named having two votes. According to the Thermal Springs Act, the Governor in Council (which is the said agent) can issue a decree at any moment for his district; so that the people here are quite at his mercy. If he were suffering fiom an attack of indigestion or a fit of the D.Ts., they might find a notice to leave the district in the morning. Besides these oeice* he is Magistrate, J.R, and Coroner. About a mile from here is Sodom and Gomorrah—a great bare sulphur flat, with h black, hellish-looking, boiling mud lake, 300 ft. long, 30ft. wide, and surrounded by black burnt brimstone rocks; while, round about the edges are numerous rents, hissing and boiling, and throwing out clouds of steam and mod from the igneous rock underneath. This rock, thrown up w solution, forms into a choral-looking substance when cooled and hardened by the atmosphere. We were tempted out on a sort of peninsula to get a nicelooking specimen, wheu I fancied the ground was getting higher all around me. Seeing at a glance what was the matter, I made a grasp at the solid rock at the side, and pulled myself up. Sure enough, the ground was rising around me; the gutta percha substance not being equal to the weight, I was gradually and surely sinking. I must confess it was a narrow squeak of paying a visit to the infernal regions. There are hundreds of acres of .silica clay in this neighbourhood which, when dug up and exposed to the air, becomes as light as pumice. Dr. Ginders, of the Hospital, who is an enthusiast and expert in chemistry, says that he thinks it as superior to the Ardrossan clay in Scotland for making dynamite, being capable of absorbing five times its own weight in moisture. I think if it was mixed with oil it would make good paint. Travelers by the coach are only allowed 25fi». luggage, so that the different specimens I have been collecting must necessarily be very limited and small.

Theie is a very good view to be obtained from the top of a hill in the middle of this valley of Mt. Ngongotaka 2282 feet, the actual ascent, from the plain being about 1500 feet. A party being formed, we started with the usual kits of sandwiches, tea and sugar, and a bottle of milk. We had two sky pilots in our party, (a Presbyterian and a Wesleyan minister). Instead of boiling the billy at the botttom and carrying the tea up in bottles, one of the gentlemen of the cloth suggested to me (knowing that it was in my line of business) that we should fill the billy with water and boil it on top. No joke carrying two gallons of water up, I tell you. However, we started, and he took spell about with that billy, like a brick, outdistancing the rest of the party, and by the time they reached the top the tea was made, the ladies declaring ihey never had such a nice cup of tea, and made in a black billy too. , The smoke from the bush fires ragin" in the Taranaki district made everything hazy, so-that we could see no distance. Watch chains, studs, and the caees of your watch become quite black in two or three days with the atmosphere; but they are easily cleaned with the silica. People coming here, after one or two baths, whatever their complaint, become worse than ever they were for a few days, and then gradually get better. Dr. Ginders examined one person here and asked him if he had not been troubled with rheumatism. He said he had never had a touch of them. Two da\s bathing made him complain of the screws, and wish he had never come to the place; but he was soon all right and the germs that the doctor thought were in his composition were driven entirely out. Of course there are some wonderful cures spoken of here; but I shall only mention those that have come under my own . observation. There is one here at Sulphur-Point, living at Brent's, a lady from Christchurch, who has had to be wheeled about in a chair for eleven months. When I arrived, she was able to move about with difficulty on c utches; now she has gone hwmv wi'lvut h<-lp of .my j3orfc, I think six wcokb cifx-ettd a

i-uiv. The most «>f tho> i-ivulids mtp a'. Whakareweiowi., of which I will speak in my next letter. 1 would recommend anyone coming here for their health to put up »t Brent's, until they look about them, and nnke their arrangements. Tourists and sightseers put up at the Ohmemutu hotels; they only stop for a tiny or two; so they oin afford, as a rule, to pay through the nose. The following is the analysis of two of the baths : THE PRIESTS', For Rheumatism, Sciatica, &c. Grains W gallon. Sulphate of soda 19'24 potash traces „ lime ... ••• ' * ~ magnesia.. ••• 303 alumina ... ••• 21 "67 iron 1-24 Sulphuric acid 22-12 Hydrochloric acid 3'bo Silica 18'Jl Sulphuretted hydrogen ... 2• J 8 Carbonic acid 2'lo Temperature, 94° to 110°. MADAME RACHEL, Imparting a smooth gloss to the skin, and making you beautiful for ever. Grains W gallon. Chloride of sodium 69*43 ?) potassium ... 3'41 ~ lithium traces Sulphate of soda 11 'BO Silicate of soda 18'21 „ lime _ 4'24 ~ magnesia ... ... I*o9 Iron and alumina oxides ... 2-41 Silica ... 5|7 Carbonic acid gas & < J Temperature, 170° to 210°.