HELENSVILLE HOT SPRINGS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 12 February 1913, Page 3

HELENSVILLE HOT SPRINGS.

(Suggested by the strictures of "Old Salt")

" Getting into hot water " is generally synonymous with get- \ ting into trouble, but in the hot . water of the Helensville Hot Springs, which I visited at New ; Year, my " trouble " began only : when the twenty minutes, the , prescribed time, being up I had to get " out." ; No man ever emerged from his ablutions, despite their necessary curtailment, with a keener consciousness of the flight of time, and a deeper feeling of gratitude for his " creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life." I felt about ten years younger, though only nine pence poorer. What an exchange ! : And this, despite the fact that I didn't act on the advice« of your contributor " Old Salt," appearing in your issue of 31st. December, and " take a lot, a thundering lot of Schnapps diluted ;with hot mineral water" to add to the effect. I do not know what measure ofjcapacity a " thunderlot " is, but I am regretfully forced to conclude from Ms undiluted strictures in the article to which I have referred that " Old Salt " must have taken his " thundering lot of Schnapps " " Neat." Referring to the me cessity for a " shorter cut " from the public road to the bath-house than the avenue at present in use, he speaks of this avenue upon which, it is evident, a greaij amount of care and trouble has been expanded as "an awful drive I " Really with due respect for Old Salt, who wiel«ds a clever, humorous, but, at Least on this occasion, too caustic pen, one would imagine the " av/ful drive" was miles in length,, and lay between two rows of grinning, human skulls in the < lomain of the King of the Cannib. al Islands instead of being within . cooey of humane, happy, hustlij ag Helensville, and between ro»'ws of gorgeous flowers, " The Amen of Nature " as they ftiave been beautifully called. I'm sure " Old SaH " in his calmer moments would be free to admit that he should liave " luffed " and taken the wind and sting out of his criticisms instead of putting his helm ha>rd over and letting them carry him away. Rome wasn't built in a day, and I have no doubt that s Dine of Old Salt's suggested in? iprovements have been anticipat ed by the Domain Board, and a vill, in due time be adopted by it. But that "short cut" in the face of the fact that a curve is the line of beauty, I never ! apropos of the disposition, which some people, almost unconsciously, display of unfavourably comparing the place they happen to be in for the time with some other place or places where they have been, just a little story, new to some of your readers at least, I should hope, and bearing on the point. " A Boston woman died and went to heaven. Once inside the pearly gates she began to examine with a coldly critical eye the unveiled glories of the paradise of the blest. At last, having finished her scivzting for the time being, she enclaimed, with a sigh of disappointment —" Ah waal, I guess, its beautiful, vera beautiful, but its not Boston!" My stay at Helensville was all too short. It was so pleasant to renew acquaintance with many old friends of long ago, especially amongst the various branches of the clan McLeod, was I at home. The younger members of course h3fi grown up and knew not Joseph, nor Joseph them, but Joseph was glad to meet them for the .sake of Auld Lang Syne. Despite '.' Old Salt's " opinion to the contrary Helensville is advancing. May it continue to advance ! but in what direction, whether towards the North end or the South end I am not prepared to take any risk by saying. —An Revoir! OV/N CORRERPONDENT. Mokai, Jan. 2g-, 1913.