EARLY DAYS

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21020, 23 November 1933, Page 16

EARLY DAYS

DIFFICULTIES OF THE ROAD RECOGNITION OF VALUE OF SPRINGS ' The early history , of the Hanmer district is losf in the mists of time—it is known that it was a place of some importance to the Maoris in ■ the days of the greenstone traffic to the West Coast, and it is definitely recorded that a part of the forces of Te Kauparaha. passed through it on one of the conqueror's southern raids, but beyond these facts the story of this now famous spot is lost. Yet the steam • and fumes rising from the springs i must have been a land mark to ! many a wandering Maori, and it seems impossible that the natives did not make some use of them, if only on their journeys through the country. The first European record dates from 1852, when sheep were taken through the district and the area was surveyed in 1858 by Mr J. A. Watts. The existence of the springs - must have been known for many years before this, but curiously enough the first mention of them in print did not occur until 1859. in that year, on April 20, Mr William Jones, of St. Leonard's, on the Waiau river, announced in a Christchurch newspaper that he had dis- ; covered the springs, and expressed ! the opinion that they had been hitherto unknown. First Report of the Springs. "It appears that the springs discovered by Mr Jones about a mile from the track on the left going towards Jollie's Pass on the road to Nelson," said the report. 1 "They are seven in number, in the space of about an acre, being dis- ; tinct circular pools all full to the ■ brim of hot water and in a con- • stant state of ebullition, the water ] bubbling up in the centre as in a 1 fountain The largest is seven or j eight yards in diameter and the smallest about three feet, but they ] vary in other characteristics besides t size, the largest emitting a strong ' sulphurous smell and its water hav- 1 ing an unpleasant taste, peculiari- j ties which the others do not possess, j The temperature of the surface ajso T varies considerably; in the warmest ]

the hand may be mserteu to '.he depth of about two feet without feeling the heat quite intolerable, but our informants state that at five feet down they believe Ihe water in the largest pool to be at boiling point." % Official Opening. In 1883 came the day. the fiftieth anniversary of which wil] be celebrated rext Sunday and Monday, the official opening oC the springs under Government control. Mr W. Stewart was appointed caretaker, and it is to his foresight and energy that the. present residents and the many visitors owe the magnificent plantations which abound in the town. He began the work of tree-planting and also gathered native shrubs and plants from the neighbouring hills. The chief obstacle to the develop-, ment of the town as a health and holiday resort had been, up to then,' the turbulent Waiau river, flowing in its deep and dangerous bed, but; on August C, 1887. the present fine' bridge, built by Mr John Ander--son, sen., head of the well-known, engineering firm, was opened for traffic. ' History records that 23 year* earlier there had been a suspension bridge near the same site, built by one Handyside, but its fate was - eloquently described by the, reporter who attended the opening of the present structure. "Twenty-', five years ago there was a bridge over the Waiau river, a handsome suspension bridge, the admiration , and delight of the residents in. the Amuri and Hanmer and of travel-. lers," he wrote. "But once there blew a blast, like the blasts -felt in . this part of the world occasionally, and when that blast had swept away , on a wild career over the pathless' Pacific, it was found to have taken % the bridge with it. Some debris were found in the swirling green %vaters below the site and after that nothing, remained of Handy side's bridge but. a tradition." Wartime Changes. The wartime saw many changes at Hanmer. To begin with the sanatorium was destroyed by fire on the day war was declared, anda house in the town had to be used in its place for some time. Then, thanks to the generosity of the late Mr Duncan Rutherford and other land-owners in Amuri, the - v lodge was taken over and opened as a hospital for soldiers, while in 1916 the Queen Mary Hospital was opAed on the site of the old sanatorium. ' The Queen Mary Hospital was used for soldiers during the war' years, but as soon as the war wi.3 over civilians began to be admitted. Later special accommodation was provided for. women patients ar l the hospital, under the capable and popular care of Dr. P. Chisho'rr., took on its present form. A few years, after the war the Hanmer Springs were taken over by the Health Department from the. Tourist Department. Since tiieii \ / they have been administered by that Department, with special attention to the development of ths'r healing properties and to the advancement of the town as a health resort for the South Island.