OKAUIA THERMAL SPRINGS.

Matamata Record, Volume VII, Issue 580, 10 November 1924, Page 4

OKAUIA THERMAL SPRINGS.

A MATAMATA ASSET.

Wonderful Curative Properties.

About three and a-half miles out of Matamata there is a system of thermal springs which, notwithstanding the facts that they are not being advertised or developed to anything like the extent the possibilities warrant, are yet known to be of singular curative powers. For neuritis, neurasthenia, rheumatism, indigestion and scalp troubles (such as hair falling out) those having a

knowledge of the Okauia Thermal Springs say that they are unrivalled. a case is cited wherein the sufferer, after -visiting all the wellknown watering places without success, has found immediate relief and ultimate cure at Okauia.

Th\re is one couple, at least, who, have eWiT faith in the future <¥" velopmenfesof the,springs, namely, Mr. and fltrs. T&f Underwood, /who have had the\courage to fine new tea rooms\in the wilderness, and the grit to hold\m. Mi< Underwood states that the public" last year gave him every encouragement, showing by their patronage that they appreciated his building \rf the tearooms,,and recognised that\lhe need for them had been amply ftdfilled. Mr/Underwood hopes to oommodation also this summer.

Among comparatively recent cures mentioned by MJr.C Underwood^ was that of a man who had been suffer-

ing very badly from insomnia. He had been to all the other watering places in New Zealand, and came on ta Okauia as a last resort, intending to stay three days. He stayed over a week and went back a delighted, cured man.

The property containing the two nearest springs is occupied by the veteran Captain Tizard, who first came to the district in 1879 on survey work, and was later also interpreter in the courts, he being able to speak Maori fluently. Captain Tizard recalls the stirring times when one native's band was raised against another; he recollects seeing a native planting some potatoes, or

kumeras, not far from the springs, aind dragging his rifle along with him as he planted, for fear of assault by members of a then hostile tribe.

The two baths here are the spout bath, from a bore sunk 35 feet by Captain Tizard, and giving forth a flow at a pressure of 10.51 b to the square inch; the second and smaller bath is known as the "Opal" bath by Europeans, and "The Long Torch"; by the Maoris. The Europeans call it the opal bath on account of .the lights and shadows giving the pebbles at'the bottom an opalescent

hue. With the picturesqueness so 'characteristic of the native mind, the Maoris call it rt The Long Torch," because the sun pours in a long

gleam of light upon the water, from

between the foliage above. Overhead grape vines spread, forming a leafy canopy; surely it must have been some such place in Persia that inspired Omar Khyaan to compose the quatrain:

" Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— And Wilderness is Paradise enow."

No doubt it will give the reader a horrible jolt to be brought down from association on heights with the muses to such a mundane thing as an official description of the Okauia Thermal Springs area, but the geological recorder (Dr. Bell) has shown due appreciation of the poetical aspect of Matamata's potentially great asset:—

" The Okauia group of mineral c pi'ings includes the somewhat scattered group of spi'ings which occur near the southern boundary of the subdivision. The principal springs of the group are just without the area named. All these springs are obviously connected with a great fault which separates the mountain from the plains. " Ramaroa, or Opal spring, is 104 degrees Fahr., Paraparu, or Ruby spring, 104 degrees; Okokukura has a temperature of 117 degrees Fahr., and a flow of 28,000 gallons per hour. This spring is but a few feet from the Waihou river, and the limpid, effervescent waters of the spring, welling with opaline tints from a tuft bottom, pleasingly contrast with the jrrey-green rapid current of the Waihou."

The analyses read as follows: Sodium chloride, 1.51 grains per gallon; -odium bicarbonate 28.10 "-rains

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