The Passing Season.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2102, 10 May 1898, Page 3

The Passing Season.

We are constantly hearing it said that the season just now ending has not come up to expectations—that it is not to be compared with that of 1896 7. The complaint has been so general and often repeated in our hearing, that wO took the trouble to inquire into the matter with a result which, we must confess, came as a surprise. ~Te Aroha does not appear to have'enjoyed what might be called n season before that of 1896 ; 7. That period saw a fresh departure .in her history .as a popular watering place. Accommodation for visitors was scarce in thuse days, but the number of board-ing-houses opened, since then has during the present season materially reduced*the pressure on their resources. The destruction of the Hot Springs Hotel was a serious blow to these returns, doubtless. People get accustomed to coming and going to certain houses, and when such a calamity as the wipiug out of Mr Knock’s house occurs at tho very beginning of the hotel-keepers’ harvest time, we can readily understand a large number of habitues prefer to try a change and seek pastures new for that year’s holiday at auyrate. Then the alterations in the Domain which the increasingdemandsonbathingaccummodati'on necessitated involved a temp rary disturbance in the hot waiter supply and some injury was inflicted on the interests of the Borough by the action of the Domain Board’s, critics, who persisted in judging that body’s work by a number of condemned bath houses, and wilfully closing their eyes to the magnificent undertaking pre-sented-in the finest bathing est iblishmeni -in the colonies, which isto be p : aid ■with becoming eclat on the 24 th. ui May. We never , took the critics seriously, nor did we believe, as they were bo fond of reiterating, that people were bi.ing driven away by the action of the Board in turaiDg the Domain upside down,.and that we were running u grave risk of losing our thermal springs altogether through that body’s nonfeasance , misfeasance and malfeasance. As. we remarked we have been at the trouble to investigate this com; plaint of a dull season, and find that there are, absolutely no grounds for it. The total number of passengers booked at Te Aroha during the year ended 31st March, 1897—the annus mirabi'is in our records as a popular watering place-was 10,738. In the year just ended ihere was the handsome increase, of 3368—the total being 14,106. As throwing additional light on the rapid progress Te Aroha is making while so many widely advertised resorts are practically at a. standstill, we may mention that our railway traffic for 4 weeks ending. 30th April, 1898, amounted to £597 3s, while the corresponding periods in 1896 and 1897 amounted to £237 7s 7d and £437 9s 4d respectively.