FROM A TOURIST'S POINT OF VIEW.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1735, 16 June 1886, Page 2

FROM A TOURIST'S POINT OF VIEW.

• If these paters keep m activity they will form . as greats .aa ? attraction to tourists as the tewaces, bWwheu escape has been found for the forces recently set' into motion thoy- -may subside intc quiescence or become intermittent. The Hotorua district, however, 'must always b« a very, wonderful one such as touriati through, Now Zealand will never willingly leave ont of their routeß. The district now offers novelties which «nrp'ass everything seerrhere before, as it furnishes the most extraordinary example of how geological changes m the earth's strata are spinetiunes effected m the course of a" few hours. The half buried houses at Wairoa i are .perfectly unique, and the village ought to be lett standing just as it is, except so far as excavations are necessary to reop ser bodies or, property, ijotomahana, as an exhibition of Nature's it irjfinitely mere marvellouSithanL ever it \vjnß before. To see this lafge basin torn and lashed with a fury that 'baffles desuriptiou; roaring, cannonading, and screeching ; driving into tbo'air at one srjot columns of ,steam^ such, as mighj ,b$ generated in' tho' boilers of^a' levia» •' than steamship | and from another orifibe m ,the same crater, * sendiug put black columns of smoke and showers of -is a spectacle that can only lose |m magnificence by any attempt to convey an impression of it m words. I feel that I dare not attempt to do' ifrfusticejj Fortunately frorii the.'configuration of . the ground a full view' may be obtained of an area embracing at least fifteen active craters from the break of the hill immediately Taboye the Lake.^ The situation enables one ;to look right down into several craters, and see the whole of tha surrounding ooontiy, obtaining at the sacne time a' vory fine view of Ruapehu and Tpngariro. Somia people here, on learning of the probable destruction of the terraces, were inclined to take a despondent" view of the future of tH« district as a resort for toarists, but I am convinced that when the wonders thai have replaced those which are' gone become known, such a stream^ will set f in from all parts of the world as is without precedent m the history of this favourite • iiißing ground of the globe trotters. The idea that the danger has -increased may be scouted at once, tha opening of hew rents^frbMtheit gaß'ea^eneraked^by the subterranean fires acting recently aa iaf etjr ▼ ! alves z for : ahy f overjilus pf ; tha| tremendous eur-tgy which was always the predominating feature of this district. ;. | <.; - '..-• : . . The fences" are no obstacles against one walking where one. likes : only a few inches of them are above the surface. When the search party reached" Wairda the bodies of four, natives, had been recovered — two'wpm e n> 9 ne ma n i f D 4 ono child. There jartfyupsosed to fi^e or nx more dead Maoris buried at Wairoa. Gangs of natives WerebflsyaU day excavating their whares, or remained of them, and bringing What portion of the goods they could rake-out io Eotoraa. The number of cats they . haye- brought back with them was very noticeable. Coacli-badß of people have been .coming here every day from all' p^arta d£ ; the" country since the eruption took place. - _, :