THE HANMER PLAINS, &c.

Clutha Leader, Volume XVII, Issue 875, 24 April 1891, Page 5

THE HAN ME R PLAINS, &c.

A SHOUT TRIP TO THE HANMEB SPRINGS, LINCOLN AGKICULTURAL COLLEGE, AN]) SUMNER INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. The Hamner Springs have been a sood deal before the public of late years, chiefly, I suppose, because they are of fairly easy access, and because they are the only hot springs in the South Island. They must be looked at from twu standpoints — as a pleasure resort, and as a sort of sanatorium for invalids. We went to spend a few holidays quietly. What constitutes a holiday ? Change of occupation, thought, and scene. I once knew a baker who, having a week's holiday, spent the whole time in bed. He had been accustomed to long hours and very early rising, and so rest to him was sleep. His principle was vight, though he probably overdid it. lam afraid that baker was not a very active-minded man. A friend of mine, who had an office in a large city, bnt who had to do a great deal of knocking about the country, used to consider his annual holiday to consist of the fortnight he had to be closely confined to his office, so as to allow his clerk to go for his annual holiday. It is quite a mistake to suppose that any active-minded individual can spend a holiday by " doing nothing." If he attempts it, his thoughts go back to their old groove, and then the last state of that man is worse than the first. Happy is that man who can shunt his thoughts from one groove into another as easily as a pointsman can shunt an engine from one line of rails to another. How many people have wished that there were some mechanical apparatus in the brain by which you could shut off one line of thoughts and bring on another I As Oliver Wendell Holmes says : "If \Ve could only

get at them, as We lie on our pillows, atid count the dead beats of thought after thought, and image after image, jarring through the over-tired organ ! Will nobody block those wheels, uncouple that pinion, cut the string that holds those weights, blow up the infernal machine with gunpowder? What a passion comes over us sometimes for silence and rest !" Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most common-sense men who ever lived, has often remarked that it is .worry, not hard work, that kills a man. A man can stand a ton of hard work for every cwt of worry. Worry is the rust that eats into the blade. All of which goes to prove that a holiday is not " doing nothing," bitt a change from one active scene to another— qiood erat demonstrandum. Now, don't be growling and asking what has all this to do with the Hanmer Springs. We are not wasting our time. All this time we are on our road to Christchurch, which is reached in one lons day from here. Next day you start at 7.30 a.m., and reach Culverden — the terminus of the railway — at 12.30, in plenty of time for dinner — a very important consideration when you are travelling. Then follows a nice 25---mile drive, which lands you at the Hanmer Plains at about 5 o'clock. After leaving Culverden, and all the way to T.he springs, you are in the region of wild country and hig runs, such as those of the Macfarlanes, Rutherfords, Wilsons, &c. , who have enormous tracts of rugged country between them. For many miles you drive past a rabbit-proof fence of wire netting, which is about 80 milns lonor, and which has been\ fairly successful in keeping the . rabbits off enormous tracts of land. The squatters and Government have together contributed to its cost. But the rabbits have in some places worked their way in round unprotected corners which a few owners have neglected to fence off. However, a rabbit commission, consisting of Mr Duncan, M.H. ft. , and three others, has been appointed by the Government to report fully on the matter. They started work when we were there, and will no do^bt have finished their inspection by this time. "Boundary dogs are an institution we haven't got hereabout. Instead of Sates, which have to be opened frequently, they have two dogs chained, one on each side of the road, which come out and bark whenever anything comes near, and thus effectually keep the sheep to their own side of the boundary. You pass a picturesque bridge on the Wai;ui, and in half-an-hour's time reach the Hanmer Plains, which is a dreary-looking plain —showing unmistakable signs of having once been a lake — about 12 miles long and four or five broad, completely shut off from the rest of the world by the high, rugged, conical hills, which hem it in on every side, with two or three passes as exits. There is nothing romantic about the springs ; no large pools in which you luxuriate the livelong day, only a few small springs of differenttemperatures, from which the water is conducted by pipes into two houses, in eich of which are six baths, very much the same as an ordinary bath in a house, but made of wood, ms the sulphuretted hydrogen from the water corrodes every ordinary metal. By turning on the taps from the different pools, you can have the water at any temperature you like, the maximum beimr 120 degrees F., which is much too hot for any ordinary white person. You enn always follow the bath by a cold, fresh water showei'-bath. There is only one outside pond in which yon can have a swim, and that only a few stroke 5 * •across. Sulnhuretted hydrogen m^ets your gnz'} — I mean your nose — everywhere ; that being the chief chemical constituent of the waters. You can see it bubbling up from any of the springs. You can ignite the gas with a match and it then burns with its characteristic pale blue flame. There are also large quantities of free and fixed ammorin. As a rule, a large quantity of ammonia in water is derived from sewerage contamination, and so condemns the water at onco for drinkinn purposes, but in this case it can't, be derived from sewerage ; on the contrary, it seems quite good, and, many people say, even beneficial to drink. Most people who go in for a " course " of the baths drink a good deal of the water, and you will see one man take a long drink, and then say to a friend of his, " Well, old man, how's your liver? mine's feels fine now. Unhappy mortals who have discovered that they have a liver ! for, as the old pun says, (( the power to load a good life depends largely on the liver." The taste of the water is rather nauseous, but people seem to get. used to it, and the natives thereabout drink it like ordinary water. The water also contains quantities of iron, soda, potash, chlorine, etc, As to their medicinal properties, of course you hear many wonderful yarns up there. But the Hanmer-hot springs, like patent medicine, will not cure all the innumerable ills that flesh is heir to. They seem to be distinctly beneficial in cases of chronic rheumatic affections, and in some chronic skin affections, although somfi forms of rheumatism seem very little affected by them. The dry, bracing climate no doubt also contributes to the benefits to be derived from a stay there. They have now enclosed and laid off some ground round the baths, which have a rather pretty pffect, and look like an oasis in a desert. So much so that one day we were there, a swagger, who had walked a long distance, came rushing; up, and, mistaking it for a hotel, instantly demanded a long shandy-gaff. The look of blank dismay on his face when he was informed that the hotel was three miles farther up was in marked contrast to the expression we saw depicted there, as he drained off a very long glass at the hotel an hour after. There is a comfortable hotel theee miles from the spring, and'aiso a comfortable boardirig-houao one and a-half miles distant. Both places keep traps and horses, and drive people to the springs two or three times a day, which many of them regard as a valuable way of filling in time. AMr Idle, who is known far and wide as an excellent manager, has just bought the hotel, and he means to belie his name, spending lots of money on the place, and putting up more rooms, two tennis courts, billiardroom, etc., all of which are much wanted, especially as there are hardly any nice places about you can visit. The hotel also supplies riding horses, and by going across the Clarence river you can get any amount of rabbit-shooting. Hanmer plains ( seem very populav with tho Ohri&tehureh

yr^itftMß!r^ii-'i'--,i.-i > vi'fT'^rr'-''~ ii -r"iri'^riirtfri'ir „ <r -j— i and other people. Btfh pladea Wef# crammed -W-ifch people when we wetid there, some of Whom We're! very pleasant; and, like life on board ahip, you get to know everything about everybody in an incredibly short spade of time. We alsd had an organ and piano, boj betweeii ami or two nice dances, concerts, cards, etc.^ the evenings wer« spent very agreeably"* No doubt it will get even' more popular irt the future. The coiiritry round abofiit is vei'y wild and rugged, and iriany of the* extraordinary steep, and almost perpendicular pinches they have to bring their" waggon-loads of wool down are* very dangerous. A great many accidents occur 1 in consequence.- At a place' not fat 1 away from' flanmer, there is a small graved yard with 40 gravel?, and of these 30 are* in i - esult of accident. Talk about dyingj in harness i There are Some enormous rrins about 5 one man has 250,000' acre's, and can only keep 50,000 sheep on it; an* other man got a mortgage or/ the incoming clip of wool on 85,000 sheep, and.- sd rough is the country, that when they 1 came, to shear them, there were only 1 45,000 sheep to show for them. Some big runs are leased from the Goverrfmenfi at very nominal refntal?.- The lessee a( one big lot of land of 40.000' acres' has 1 to* pay only LlO a year. The direct road between Christchurch and Nelson 1 runs p;»sfc here, so one large nmholder has his 1 md very cheap from the Government on the understanding that he must keep a certain number of accommodation houses at suitable intervals, and any traveller; can go to these and demand his tea, bed; and breakfast gratis* And then farther* inland where there is no traffic, he mnsfc ke«p in certain places in a hut some flour; toa, etc. , so that no shepherd need starve. How's that for a paternal Government? (Tobn continnntl )