AS OTHERS SEE US.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 185, 17 June 1896, Page 5

AS OTHERS SEE US.

The T>ev. H. R. Haweis who is ,jjotcd.no!. only as a most entertaining -jfcturer but as a versatile author visited the Hot Lakes District last ve(U . an d has contributed a few notes of his experiences to tho " Queen" newspaper. The following extract f ill interest our readers in spite of a f eff inaccuracies The Hot Springs.

The Thermco, or hot baths, of the near future are, without doubt, the marvellous volcanic spriugs of Rotorlia and the Lake Taupo district, in the north of JN'ew Zealand. They concentrate in a small area all the varied qualities of the European springs, and other curative properties of an extraordinary character which are not posted in the same degree by any other known waters. '.Before Mr proudo's Oceana," and the subsequent destruction of the famous pink terraces, little attention had been called to one of (the mast romantic and amazing spectacles in the world. The old terraces are indeed pine. The idyllic villages, the blos■oming slopes are a waste of volcanic ashes and scoria; through which the dauntless vegetation is only now beginning to f-truggle. The blue watprs ( lire di-pl.ced and muddy, but the dis-

aster of one shock could not rob the land of its extraordinary mystery and beauty. For a distance of .'3OO miles, south yf Lake Taupo and running north, a volcanic crust, sometimes thin enough to be trodden through, separates the foot from a-seething mass of sulphur, gas,,and boiling water, which around Rotorua and Wairakei finds strange and ample-vents in hotstreams, clouds of vapouv, warm lakes, geysers and occasionally developing into appalling volcanic outbursts, which certainly invent the region with a weird' terror, but also with an inconceivable charm, for tho white vapour breaks amidst flowering bushes, true valleys of Paradise.; tho streams ripplo hot and ciystalline over parti coloured rocks or through emerald' lined mossy .dells.; the warm lakes slepp embedded in-soft, weedy banks, lefleeting parti-coloured rocks, half.clothed in.tropical foliage.; coral-like deposits here and there -of various tints reproduce the,famous terraces in miniature, and geysers in odd moments spout huge volumes of 'boiling water with an unearthly roar 80 feet 'into the air. At Wairakei, near Lake Taupo, specimens of all'these wonders are concentrated in a few square miles —the bubbling white mud po Is, like foaming pilaster of Paris ; tho petrifying springs, into which a boy fell some timo ago,.and, getting a good silicate coat over him, was taken out months afterwards " as good as ever;" so my guide explained. "What!" I paid, " did not he feol even a little poorly?"

•' "What's that ?" says the guide, and the joke dawning on liim lie burst'inito a tardy roar. And time would fail mo to tell of the dragon's moutli, an open rock, •vomiting sulphur and steam-; the lightning pool, in whose depths for ever flash queer opaline flashes; the ehnmiDßgne pool-; the Prince of 'Wales' Feather, -n geyser which can he mado to play half an hour after a few clots of mud have blocked up a 'little hot stream; the steam hammer, the fairy hath, the donkey engine, &o. AtEotor.ua wc bought blocks.of soap nna threw them in to make a .certain ibifT .geyser >-pout. The 'Maoris have still the monopoly there ; you pay toll, cross a rickety bridge with a Maori girl as guide, and then visit t'he pools, terraces-and boiling fountains. They are not nearly so pictviesque a* at "Wairfikei, which is a wilderness of blossoming glens, streams, aiul wooded vales. But you see the Maori in liis native village. The volcanic crust is warm to the feet. the Maori huts < f "toitoi" reeds and boards are all about; outside are warm pools ; naked girls and boys are swimming in them ; as we approach •they emerge half out of the water.; we throw them threepenny bits. The girls seem most eager and dive best. One cunning little girl about twelveor •thirteen, ] believe, cauclit her coin each time .under water long before it sank, but throwing up her leirs half out of -water dived deep, pretending in fetch it up from the bottom. Sometimes there Yi-as a scramble under the -water for the coin-; the girls generally pot it-; the boys seemed half lazy. We passed on. " Here is the brain-pot," said our Maori belle ; a hollowed Btone. It was heated naturally—the brains cooked •very well there in the old days.—not very old days either. " Here is the bread oven." She drew off the cloth, and pure enough in a hole in the hot ground there were three new loaves getting nicely browned "Here-are potatoes," and she pointed to littlo boiling pool, and the potatoes were neai'lv done ; and "here is meat " —a tin let into tho earth, that, v us all—contained a joint baking; and further on was a very crxorl stow—at least, it being one o'clock, it smelt well enough. And so the,re is no fuel find no fire wanted in this and dozens of other Maori pubs or hamlets. In the cold nights the Maoris come out of their tents naked, and sit or even sleep in tho hot, shallow lakelets and pools hard by. Anything more uncanjiy than this walk through the Rntorua tipyservillngecan hardly be conceived. The best springs oro -rented from the Maoris by tho Govi rnment rr local liotel-keepeis. These are now increasingly fashionable bathing resorts. The finest bath specific for rheumatism, the I?achel hath, investing the body with a soft, satiny texture, and a pearly complexion ; the iron, sulphur, (ho ,oU baths, from which when

you emerge you have but to shake j'ourself dry. But the Priests' bath, so called from the discoverer, Father Mahoney—who cured himself of obstinate rheumatism—is perhaps of all the most miraculous in its effects, and there are no two opinions about it. Here take place the most incredible cures of sciatica, gout, lumbago, and all sorts of rheumatic affections. It is simply a question of fact. The Countess of Glasgow herself told me about the cure of a certain colonel, relativo or aide-de-camp of the Governor, the Earl of Glasgow. The colonel had for years been a perfect martyr to rheumatism and gout. He went to Rotorua with his swollen legs and feet, and came away wearing tight boots, and "as good as ever," as my guide would have said. But, indeed, I heard of scores of similar cases. all victims who can afford it lay it well to heart. A pleasure trip of only thirty-two days, changing' saloon rail carriage but three times, and steamer cabins but twice, will ensure them an almost infallible cure, even when chronically diseased and no longer j-oung. This is no "jeujah" affair. I have seen and spoken to the fortunate benoficialres—you meet them all over New Zealand. Otcourse, the fame of the baths is spreading.: the region is only just made accessible by the opening of the railway from Auckland to Rotorua—a ten hours' run. The -Wairakei and Taupo baths aro very similar, and tlio situation is infinitely more romantic in 'that the appliances are not so primitive, and the Government, on account of the railway, aro pushing the Rotorua baths.