Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 315, 24 April 1878, Page 4

MORE HOT SPRINGS AND RHEUMATIC CURES.

A correspondent of the New Zealand Herald says ; —“ Few persons in Auckland seem aware of the existence of hot springs in the Awaioa district of the Lower Waikato ; yet hot springs there certainly are in that place, and of a very remarkable character. We had an opportuimity of visiting them a short time ago, and were struck with the unmistakeable signs of their medicinal properties, and the facility with which they could be opened up by a little enterprise. The first spring the traveller comes to is a deep pond, about ten or twelve feet in diameter, of bubbling boiling water, and giving forth a great quantity of steam in the pond, the water .of which is quite clear, and so hot that potatoes may be boiled in it. Round the pond are undoubted evidences of the curative powers of the water, in the shape of several holes like graves communication with the largo pond by a very small channel. These have been dug by the Maoris, and when one of them is afflicted with rheumatism, he sleeps all night in one of the holes, with his head alone out of the water, resting on a fern pillow on the bank. We are told of one old Maroi chief in the Waikato who became very rheumatic because he would grope for eels in swampy water, and was just on the point ot death through his perverseness, when some of the - wise women of the tribe recommended the spring. He was carried there, and by bathing frequently completely recovered.”