f 1 .—2.

Hamurana Reserve is very popular, and the Hamurana Spring is visited by all the tourists making the lake trip. £51 was spent during the year in rebuilding the landing-stage, cleaning the paths, and improving the tea-tent, and £42 in lengthening the wharf, and a revenue of £26 per annum is obtained as rent of the tea-tent. The programme of the launch service only allows visitors one hour here, where several hours might be spent with advantage, and it is hardly worth while developing the reserve any further unless the launch time-table be altered to enable it to be used more effectively. The road from Rotorua (ten miles) has been largely improved by the Beads Department during the year, and is now- in good order, thus bringing the reserve into more general use as a picnic and camping-ground, particularly for fishermen, for which purposes it should become very popular. Okere Reserve is very popular, and deservedly so, but again the present launch service gives the visitor only i ne hour here, which is entirely inadequate to enable him to get to the main points of interest, particularly the lower Tutea Falls and the Trout Pool, or to appreciate the beauties that he has only time to glance at in passing. The Courthouse and post-office grounds have been maintained during the year, for which payment is made by the Departments concerned. Whakarewarewa Maori Pa. Work has been pushed on with the model pa at Whakarewarewa, at a total expenditure of £185 during the year. Two families are now resident in the pa, and the necessary whare puni, or dwelling-houses, wharau, or cook-houses, pataka, or store houses, have been completed. The ceremonial wha'ta, timanga, tiki, ivharetohvnga, and other structures are well in hand; and a small wharerunanga, or carved assembly hall, is almost completed. The town water has been laid on, and the pa will shortly be available for general occupation, when it is expected that a number of Native industries—such as carving, weaving, and plaiting —will be carried on regularly there. It will then serve both as an attraction to the tourist and as a means of preserving these rapidly disappearing arts of the Maori. Baths and Sanatorium. The work of installing the balneological equipment of the new bath buildings, Rotorua, has been carried out under the supervision of the Balneologist, including the acid and alkaline mineralwater pumping plant and reticulation, the town water reticulation, the massage equipment, the electric-light baths and electric-water baths, the Roentgen ray and high frequency apparatus, with the necessary storage battery and motor generator for charging it, the natural vapour and inhalation baths supplied with steam from one of the cones of the Malfroy Geyser at a distance of 200 yards away. A 50-horse-power locomotive type boiler has also been installed for heating the building and supplying the Russian and Turkish baths. A new Spout Bath has been built at Whakarewarewa, at a total cost of £1,200, providing four " spout " or douche baths, one large plunge bath, and three private baths, with necessary offices and conveniences. These supply a want which has been very marked since the old Spout Baths fell into decay. The water is supplied from the same boiling lake, Rotoatamaheke. The pavilion and other bath buildings at Rotorua have been maintained in good order during the year. The sanatorium was extended early in the year by the addition of a wing divided into eight cubicles, with the necessary bath-rooms and conveniences, at a cost of £604. The Rachel water was laid on to heat this ward, and for use in the bath-room. The whole building was painted inside and out during the year, and various improvements effected, which add very largely to the convenience, appearance, and life of the building. Wharves and Lake Services. The wharves and beacons in Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti have been maintained in good order, and a number of additional beacons erected to render the navigation of the lakes more convenient. A number of stumps were removed which were dangerous to launches. The Ohau Channel was kept open for navigation for boats of about 2 ft. draught or less, and a channel cut across the most dangerous bend in its course, rendering its navigation by the larger launches more convenient. Lake Rotoiti is one of our most attractive sights, owing to the beautifully wooded and indented shores of its eastern branch, which is entirely overlooked in the present launch time-table, and there is room here for great improvement in the programme offered to the visitors by the present time-table. Waitomo Caves. The Waitomo and Ruakuri Caves have been maintained in good condition, and a new entrancedoor built to the former. The old accommodation-house, which was adapted from an old and much decayed Maori building, is being replaced by a large building with all necessary modern conveniences, providing eighteen bedrooms, three sitting-rooms, a large dining-room, and post-office accommodation. When completed this will be as comfortable and convenient as any hotel in the Dominion, and should draw an extensive traffic, particularly of week-end visitors from the Auckland District. Twenty-five chains of road and 60 chains of fencing has been completed, and a water-supply and drainage system and electric-lighting plant to supply the house are being installed. Te Aroha Domain. During the year a new tea-house has been built in the Te Aroha Domain, and equipped with all necessary conveniences. A new bowling-green is being laid down, and all the baths and other buildings are being repainted. I have, &c, Lawrence Btrks, B.Sc, A.M.I.C.E.

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