HOT SPRINGS OF THE NORTH ISLAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 217, 28 October 1874, Page 2

HOT SPRINGS OF THE NORTH ISLAND.

(Continuedfrom our last.)

About ten miles below Orakei Korako, and about two miles above Niho o te Kiore, or the Rat’s Tooth (where the river is crossed by a bridge), near to the Constabulary post, is an extremely beautiful waterfall, called the Rainbow Fall. A long and rapid reach of the river, of a breadth of two or three chains, suddenly turns at right angles to its course, and dashes headlong over a ledge of purple rock, rolling past a wooded islet in the centre of the fall, in broad green waves and lumps of foamy white, over which hangs suspended the beautiful rainbow, which gives it its name. Below, the river widened out, runs deep and swiftly through a large pool, in which is another islet covered with the greenest foliage, kept fresh by the ever-descending spray. A few hundred yards below, on the eastern side of the river, and at its very margin, is a moderate sized cistern of hot water, capable of containing fifteen or twenty bathers, close packed. The facilities of this spot for bathing are not very great; but the combination of the picturesque Rainbow Fall and the neighboring Powhati Roa, a gigantic pyramidal rock of 500 feet high, rising all alone from the bare level plain, and with a tradition of Maori history attached to it, might afford inducement sufficient for a moderate sized establishment. From Niho o te Kiore, the road to Rotorua Lake leaves the Waikato River altogether, and the rest of that river’s course is, I believe, westward of the limits of the hot spring district, as defined by Hotchstetter. The road is uninteresting till within a couple of miles of Rotorua, when, after crossing a low ridge, it suddenly brings the traveller into the midst of a great group of most curious and repulsive-looking mud volcanoes, boiling in a sluggish and laborious manner like a very thick soup, and surrounded each by a viscous flooring of the same material, diversified with little spitting craters, from each of which sputters up a supply of the thick half-fluid mass. It looks like the natural home of a family of huge, ugly bull-frogs, who, were it not for the heat, would doubtless have been placed there by Nature to sprawl and croak and enjoy their slimy life. Though worderful evidences of the fiery action going on below, they afford little attraction in their present condition for sanitary experiment. I would be sorry to say, however, that they will never be utilized for such an object. A good many years ago, a quack doctor travelled over England advocating as a cure for all diseases the burying of his patients up to the neck in the earth. A beautiful young girl who accompanied him used to be immured as an example. She was afterwards known to the world as the celebrated Lady Hamilton, whose name is historically con-

nected with that of Lord Nelson. Though the man was a quack, his remedy is said to have been efficacious, and possibly the mud puias of Rotorua may some day be found capable of similar application. In front, at a distance of a mile, lies Rotorua Lake, with the Native village of Ohincmutu jutting into it on a long narrow headland, and away across three miles of water is the island Mopoia. This is the scene of Mr. Domett’s poem of “ Ranolf and Atnohia,” in which, with a warmth of sentiment and fervour of expression of quite 212 degrees, he has endeavored to clothe savage life and character with charms and dignity which it would be difficult to recognise in the realities of any Maori pa on the shores of Rotorua at the present day, and which probably never had any existence except in the romantic day-dreams of the poet. I am bound to express, however, my admiration of the truthfulness and splendour of his descriptions of the scenery, and the thorough New Zealand atmosphere in which he has enveloped his, in many parts, beautiful tale. Rotorua affords facilities for bathing “ in the open,” on the largest scale of any single place in the hot spring districts. The whole bay in front of Ohincmutu (Ruapeke), some hundred yards across, has a temperature of from 50 degrees to 110 degrees, according to the set of the wind and proximity to the hot springs by which it is fed. Those exist chiefly at the neck of the promontory on which the village stands, where they bubble, hiss, gush, and run into the cooler water of the lake. Others emerge through the soft siliceous bottom of the lake itself, and the bather is not unfrequently made aware of their presence by the sudden sting of a boiling jet when he sets down his foot. This, however, is not attended with any bad consequences, if he catches up his foot instantly, as he is pretty sure to do. This bay is the daily resort, morning and evening, of the whole population of the neighboring village, and it is capable of accommodating regiments of soldiers at one time. It affords the finest conceivable opportunity of establishing a great sanatorium for Indian regiments. There are isolated hot springs in other places near to the village, which could be easily adapted for bathing purposes. At a distance of a couple of miles is a group of most remarkable puias, the principal of which, Whakarewarcwa, occasionally throws up a column of hot water to a height of 50 or 60 feet. Several others sputter, hiss, and heave in the same neighborhood. These might, I think, be all utilized by a little hydraulic skill. At any rate, Ohinemutu and its surroundings can hardly fail to become one of the principal bathing-places in the country.

Leaving Ohinemutu by a new road which the Government of the colony is at present constructing, and passing by Tikitapu Lake, with its waters of sapphire blue, and the more homely shores of Rotokakahi, Wairoa, at the head of Lake Tarawera, is reached. Trom this spot guides and canoes are taken for the trip to Rotomahana aud the celebrated White and Pink Terraces. After a sale or paddle across the very picturesque Tarawera of six oi- eight miles, and a walk of a couple of miles, or a pull up a narrow creek for the same distance, the foot of the great Tarata is reached.

It is not my intention to dilate on the wonderful and beautiful which abound in connection with Rotomahana and its terraces. I wish rather to draw attention to the different groups of springs, with a view to their sanitary use. At the same time, the idea that these majestic scenes may one day be desecrated by all the constituents of a common watering-place, has something in it bordering on profanity. I would not suggest that their healing waters should be withheld from the weary invalid or feeble valetudinarian. Doubtless their sanitary properties were given them for the good of suffering humanity, and that they should become the Bethesda of New Zealand would detract nothing from their sanctity and grandeur. But that they should be surrounded with pretentious hotels and scarcely less offensive tea-gardens : that they should be strewn with orange-peel, with walnut shells, and the capsules of bitter beer bottles (as the Great Pyramid and even the summit of Mount Sinai arc), is a consummation from the very idea of which the soul of every lover of nature must recoil. The Government of the United States had hardly become acquainted with the fact that they possessed a territory comprising similar volcanic wonders at the forks of the Yellow River and Missouri, than an Act of Congress was passed reserving a block of land of sixty miles square, within which the geysers and hot springs are, as public parks, to be for ever under the protection of the States; and it will, doubtless, take care that they shall not become the prey of private speculators, or of men to whom a few dollars may present more charms than all the finest works of creation. I beg to suggest to the Government of New Zealand that as soon as the Native title may be extinguished, some such step should be taken with regard to Rotomahana, its terraces, and other volcanic wonders. It is to the credit of the Maoris that they have hitherto done all in their power to protect them, and express no measured indignation at the sacrilegious act of some European barbarians who, impelled by scientific zeal or vulgar curiosity, have chipped of several halids’ breadth of the lovely salmon-colored surface of the Pink Terrace.

(To be continued.)