OLD AND OBSOLETE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 12, 15 January 1929, Page 8

OLD AND OBSOLETE.

ROTORUA SPA BUILDINGS.

NOT COMMENSURATE WITH

STANDARD OF WORK.

REPAIRS URGENTLY NEEDED.

(Br Telegraph.—Special to "Star.")

ROTORUA. this dav

For many years the Kotorua Spa has suffered neglect. The buildings are falling, or have long since fallen, into decrepitude. Some of them, in fact, arc almost beyond service. The whole of the buildings, not excepting the main bath building, are urgently in need of attention.

This inorninjr when a vi-it was paid to the main bath house it wa» found <<> be a hive of activity. There are ten massage ojierators. and tlieir time from 0 a.m. till 5.30 p.m. or «! p.m. i< fiilly oecupipd in carrying out pre-rription* for treatment. The work is well organised and ably carried out by thi* welltrained band of worker*. The treat nients so far a* modern scien-c <-;m direct are as up-to-date as the. most modern spa in Europe.

The Government balneolopi.it s-tatod that a majority of the patients who visit Eotorna for treatment are 'cut by doctors. The medical profession in Nnv Zealand and elsewhere now recognise the importance of hydrotherapy as a sine qua non in the modern treatment of rheumatic diseases.

Operated in ron junction with the Rotorua Spa is the fJoverniiieiit Sanatorium where some sixty patients arc housed for the purt>o<e of undergoing treatment. The building i~ old. obsolete and entirely out of keej'inp with modern scientific rcf|iiiremcii!=. but as an indication of its necessity in medical service one learns that there is always a long list of patient? waiting for admission.

Tn connection with the Spa there are also other important aspects which have been neglected, notably the social and entertainment side. At the present time the hall of the main hath-house is a huge unattractive barn, where decaying and uncomfortable furniture offers hut little attraction for invalids or tourists. In fact, there is only a bare tiled floor, a few cold marble statues, and. for the rest, forbidding emptiness. How different it could be made by a little imagination and moderate expenditure. In the Rotorua gardens there are exquisite borders and beds of flowers where visitors might enjoy the beauties of nature, but under the existing conditions the possibility of enjoyment is reduced to a minimum by the dust nuisance. The pumice drive from Prince's Gate, past the bath-house to the south gate, has a continual stream of motor traffic, and is frequently under a cloud of dust which chokes pedestrians, covers the flower borders, and flies into the bath-house with the full force of discomfort. One naturally asks, whv spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar? A few barrels of tar to seal this popular drive would abolish the dust nuisance, and make possible a walk in the jrardrns which would be a joy instead of an o:deal.