KUMARA TO ROTORUA AND THE HOT SPRINGS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2896, 9 February 1886, Page 2

KUMARA TO ROTORUA AND THE HOT SPRINGS.

[By a Correspondent. ] Whakarewarkwa, January 26

Whakarewarewa is a native village about one mile and a-half from Rotorua. There is a foot-bridge across the river and a little bouse at the end of it, with a Maori dressed in a red coat (which I believe belonged to Jock Graham when he carried her Majesty’s mail) who demands toll Is 6d. When you get at the bridge the first thing you notice is a crowd of Maori children underneath, swimming and diving into the water, and shouting to throw them some pennies. It is astonishing how quickly they dive and catch the smallest coin before it gets near the bottom. This is a sorb of communistic settlement, tolls, guide money, bath money, &c., goes into a common fund. There are several wooden cottages with verandahs, furnished with blankets, towels, cooking utensils, &c., and quite a number of large Maori-built whares, for which you pay 5s per week. When you pay your footing at the toll-gate, yon put your hand in a bag and draw a lottery ticket for your house. If you find after seeing your domicile that you don’t like it, by paying 5s more you can have your choice of the m\tenanted houses. Again, if there is a house that you woulo like to get into that someone is already in possession of (European), even although they are agreeable, yon must pay the 5s for choice in addition to the rent. We were very fortunate in our dip, having drawn a large whare 17ft. byTOft., neatly built of raupo, high roof, and large window in the end. It had only one large bedstead ; but the natives soon brought in an iron bedstead and put it together. I he butcher and baker comes over every clay from Ohinemutu, and the grocer opens a store for two hours. The Maoris supply yon with potatoes gratis, and fine spuds they are. There are fifteen Europeans renting whares here at present, suffering chiefly from rheumatics and sciatica ; one is a colonel from India, three from Australia, a nobleman’s son from England, and the rest from different parts of hew Zealand. The springs here are more numerous and varied, and ranch h rger than at Ohinemutu or Sulphur Point. Strictly speaking, the springs are on two levels, the upper level being large ponds, and little lakes varying in temperature. The overflow from these have formed natural baths in the silicious rock in the ledge below. Numerous little races lead from those ponds, so that you cun regulate the quality and temperature to suit yourself. One advantage to be had here that is not obtainable at either of the places I mentioned befote, is the facility of makingspoui baths. The far-famed lorikore hath is led through an Bio, spout and falls about ten feet into a natural bath three feet deep. These spouts have been known to effect a cure when everything else has failed. Boiling holes andsteampots forcooking purposes are here in abundance; there is no use for firewood in this country. Fill your kit with potatoes and fill your billy with fresh water, put them at the edge of the spiing, and they are ready for use in fifteen minutes; or you can. have your joint of meat and potatoes steamed in another hole alongside. These stearnpots are crevices in the rock where the steam escapes from the boiling and gurali„ w mass underneath. For practical* use square by ISin. deep of the rock is cut out, and bars of wood laid across the bottom. After you put in your kit, camp-open, or whatever vessel you may he using, cover over with a bag to confine the steam, and in thirty minutrs you have the sweetest cooked food imaginable—no steaks, or chops served up floating in gravy, or grilled to a coder; hut the true flavor, and done up to the handle. The Maoris seem to patronise only two of the baths-a large one in front ot our Whare door, about DOft. in circumference, and from 2ft. to sfc. deep, with ,i nice bathing ternperat ure.v They are in here at daylight in the morning, men and women, with their picanninis m tin ir backs, slicking to them like leeches. Tl.e oilier is the oil bath (so called from its having au

oily facs with it); but it is pctfectly clear, and imparts a smooth glossy appearance to the skin. This bath is used at night, as it has n very soothing effect, and makes you feel as if yon were at peace with everything, and everybody in general. Men, women, Maori and pakeha all bathe together hickilty-pickilty, in this bath., and a great deal of good-natured chaff is indulged in.

One drawback bore is the want of some sort of printed guidance to the use of the different springs. If the Maoris would only pay an expert to have the waters analysed and put in pamphlet form, for the nse cf invalids, this would become the “Sanitorinm ” of the district; but the Maoris are very conservative in their ideas, so that yon have to be guided by the experience of those that have been some time heie, your own discretion, and force of circumstances. It is no use asking a Maori what this or that bath is good for ; they have only one reply “Kapai room ticks.” I tried a Maori one day, I pointed to a bath boiling hot that you could not get near let alone into, he said “Kapai roomticks.” I watched his face as I pretended to strip; but uot a wink on him. Seeing that I was up to the joke lie ran off laughing, and told the other Maoris. It would have been “ Kapai lonmicks,” right enough, had I gone in ; boiled in less than no time. As at Sulphur Point, the ground in some places is very treacherous—only a thin crust, of pomice separating yon from untold horrors down below. [To be continued.]