THE LAUGHING FOOL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 109, 30 December 1931, Page 6

THE LAUGHING FOOL

FORGOTTEN MARVEL BLOODSHED AND LAUGHTER MINGLED ON MOTUTARA POINT HISTORIC SPOT IN GARDENS Reaching out into the waters of Lake Rotorua to the east of the Government Gardens Motutara Point to-day lies in almost undisturbed peace. Until a year or so ago the point and the adjacent area were covered thickly with ti-tree scrub and visitors were few and far between. To-day it lies naked to *the skies, empty and scarred, for the nine-hole golf eourse which was to have been constructed here by the Tourist Department has not been completed. But Motutara was not always thus peacefnl. Towards the extremity of the point there is a small area of rising ground and here, in the early days of settlement were found a number of human skulls, all bearing evidence of the cause of their owners' deaths, which cannot have been peaceful ones. Each of the skulls had been fractured, apparently with" a sharp and heavy weapon, such as a taiaha, or perhaps a mere. There is a tradition, now grown faint among the Rotorua tribes, that Motutara was the scene of an epic battle away back in the semi-histori-cal times before the advent of the pakeha with his arts of writing and reading and his passion for making records. A Place of Blood That there is something more in the story than the picturesque imagings of the eourtious Maori anxious to please the inquisitive stranger within his gates is borne out, not only by the presence of the skulls with their significant evidence, but also by the local nomenclature. As is common with most aboriginal races, the Maori, in bestowing* placenames, gave them a descriptive and often explanatory quality. Using this habit as a guide and translated guite freely, the name of the point itself, Motutara, means island point, suggesting that when the waters of the lake were higher than they are to-day, the mound previously mentioned was more or less an island, and therefore a suitable site for defence. Add to this the fact that an inlet on the northern side of the point was called Te Toto; the place of blood, and it takes little imagination to fill in the details of the story. On the other hand, the large sh"llow inlet on the southern side of the point is named Te Kawanga, or the crossing, which suggests that here we have the old means of access to and perhaps retreat from the little strong-hold, particularly as the crossing leads directly to the once popuous and still occupied Ngapuna Pa. Where Laughter Reigns But traditions of bloodshed are not Motutara's sole claim to notice. Far from it. Laughter is, as it were, in the essence of the locality in a completely literal sense, for there is on the point a hot pool the gasses emitted from which banish the deepest gloom in peal after peal of uncontrollable laughter. For this is the Laughing (or Cameron's) Pool. Years ago its virtues were known — its waters have valuable therapeutic pr perties — and those who used it had to be eareful always to approach it on the windward side. For some unoxplained reason, however, it has been forgotten and few even lcnow of its existence. Not far from this pool is another, knowii to the early settlers as the Painkiller Pool, but whether this has any reference to its powers as a curative of the effects of its neighbour is not stated. Rotorua is full of surprises. Its wonders are inexhaustible and not the least of these is the fact that the Laughing Pool and its strange property shonld have been forgotten, especially as it is so accessible, being within two or three minutes' walk from the main bath-house in the Government Gardens. .