NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 114, 17 May 1906, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITION.

THERMAL WONDERS

DPv WOHLMANN INTERVIEWED

Dr. S. A. Wohlmann, Government balneologist, has visited the Christchurch Exhibition grounds in connection with the proposal to reproduce on a small scale some of the wonders of the thermal region in the North Island, for the entertainment of visitors to the Exhibition. Speaking to a "Press" reporter, he said:—"What we want to do in the Exhibition grounds is to reproduce- exactly in their natural surroundings a geyser, some hot springs, and possibly a mud volcano. I propose'to do this by taking a plaster cast of a small geyser, and building up a model of it here, and we can bring down some rocks and stones from Rotorua to give it the proper surroundings. It is only an experiment, : 'and it may prove impracticable, but we shall do our best. It will be difficult to get a plaster cast of a geyser, ffecause you never know ' what -these things are going to do, and it may start to play quite unexpectedly. The height to which the artificial geyser will play depends entirely, i upon the amount of boiler- pressure; and the volume of hot water available for the purpose. It is simply a question of expenditure, and it is only fair to say that the Exhibition Commissioners have met me very liberally in the matter." As to the reproduction of hotsprings with tinted water, Dr Wohlmann explained that these pools would have to be made of concrete, and that chemicals would be used to get the desired color. The mud volcanoes at Rotorua .varied in size from a few inches in height to ten or twelve feet, and it might be more difficult to reproduce them than it would be to make aii artificial geyser. Dr Wohlmann related an instance of how a resident of Rotorua was surprised one day to find a mud volcano under his drawing-room floor. The general impression concerning Rotorua is-that the earth's crust there is fairly thin, biit ; - one hardly expects to be waked lip in the middle of the night by demonstrations of thermal activity in the earth, immediately below One's bed. In this particular case, the Rctorua citizen referred to watered his garden too freely, and the moisture loosened the clay over the " hot spot," with the result that steam began to escape, and a mud volcano was soon active... Familiarity, no doubt, breeds contempt of the latest possibilities in a district that is literally resting on a sea of boiling mud, and Dr Wohlmann seems to think that Rotorua is just as safe a locality to plant the vine and fig tree wherewith to solace one's old age as the more stable locality on the banks of the Avon. In support of this, he cites the fact that earthquakes aro more severe in Christchurch than in Rotorua, although in the hot springs metropolis they have had as many as 25 in a single day.