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New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 4

Tub service rendered by tlie international exhibitions, wliich have become a feature of our times, is that they publish the resources of the countries which contributo to them. We must not lose the opportunity which the approaching Exhibition -.1 Melbourne will afford of making properly known the natural wealth of New Zealand in the possession of mineral waters. It would be hard for our neighbours in Australia, or for people still further oft', to know much about, for really ire have had but a very slight suspicion ourselves of the extent and importance of our endowment in this way. New Zealand residents and strangers visitingAueklanddo already frequent the Rotorua sulphur baths and the springs at Waiwera ; and the alkaline water of Piiriri is brought up in bottles for sale in the towns, but the reader will see by the report which we examined in these colluimis last Saturday that a very large extent of this North Island is alive with mineral springs, and that their variety as well as number is a fact quite extraordinary. The report was suddenly called for, and so was necessarily limited—being furnished from the analysis which were already made in the colonial laboratory of various samples forwarded from time to time. Tiiese samples from different quarters make up a long list, but they are only a small part of the number available. Yet even from these tho report can say, and appears sufficient evidence to show, that " most known varieties of mineral waters are represented." With a view to the Melbourne Exhibition, thero ought to be timely arrangements to have a more general and complete examination, and to have it made at tho springs as is recommended. Even the limited evidence thus brought forirnrd proves our colony to bo peculiarly favoured in this respect. We do not know of nny of tho countries which have a repute for these waters, and certainly there is not 0110 of them within the same area, which contains such various and so many minoral springs as Northern New Zealand.

No influence is more potent than the medicinal spring in drawing strangers to a locality. Fine scenery brings visitors, but the hygienic attraction brings residents also. Towns readily grow up around the mineral waicrs, and because disease knocks at evory door, assails the great as well as the humble, tho resort to such places is easily rendered fashionable. As has always been seen in .Europe, i^'l'' o crowd there for fashion and amusement as well as for health. Seneca long ago observed, " Wherever warm springs abound new places of amusement are sure to arise." Tho region of the Ilhine is still, and was always the most celebrated country for mineral springs. It is shown in the names of the towns. There is the German Baden, tho Swiss Baden, Wisbaden, &c. The waters of the Swiss B.iden, of Spa, and of Aix-la-Chapelle—all in that neighbourhood — were well known to tho patricians of Rome, as were also the British A'/uar Culidoc at Bath. Spa in modern times obtained such repute that its name has been used in a general way, almost as often as the term chalybeate, to define that water in which iron predominates, either in quantity or action, over other ingredients. Spa has long been one of the most aristocratic of watering places, and there is a large export of its particular product. A few years ago 150.000 I bottles used (o be exported annually from one of its six springs. But there are twoGorman localities which surpass Spain this trade, although they do not receive so many visitors. The waters of Seltzer, also a chalybeate, and the saline aperient water of SeHlitz, are distributed in immense quantities all over Europe. In England though the credit of the springs of Bath is so ancient, Harrowgate, Cheltenham and Leamington are of late generations more frequented for medicinal purposes. They possess both alkaline and saline aperient waters ; and Harrowgate has in addition some chalybeate and others which are sulphurous. The Bath and Scarborough springs are alkaline; tho Tollbridge and Brighton are chalybeate. But Bath was a place of extraordinaiy consequence ill the last century and tho beginning of tho present. It was tho gayest city in England, and one of the most so in Europe. It £ur-

mshed an escape from the turmoil of .London as Versailles did from that of Paris ; but while the court was the centre of attraction in "Versailles the mineral springs were so in Bath. Yet the state of things fully illustrated how easily the sanatory object is merged in the fashionable, and how readily the one grows out of tho other beside the waters of health. People resorted to "the pump room as a sacrifice to the genius loci, but the hale were always in excess of the ailing, and gave a lively and not hypocnondriac tone to the place; while Beau Nash, as a despot of amusement was quite as absolute in his realm as any Louis of France. The importance of Bath fell away after the great pence in 1810, when the long wars with France came to an end, and when the other novelties of the Continent as well as its mineral waters were thrown open to English people. But Bath, though many of its lightshave fled, is still and will always continue a favourite place of residence —from the pleasantness of its situation, from its architectural beauty (in which respect it is the first city in England), and also from the efficacy of its particular mineral waters, although t-liesu are now excelled in at least variety by other places at home as well as abroad. We have said enough to indicate hoiv naturally medicinal waters attract not only visitors but residents ; how quickly population assembles and towns arise in such localities ; how business and amusemont follow in the wake of health-seeking. Let us add that France has not many mineral springs, with the exception of a number of sulpherous ones pretty close together in the Pyrenees ; that Eastern and Southern Germany possess a good many as well as England, but there are a certain number in other parts of the United Kingdom and in other parts of the Continent, but in all those countries they are scattered, and seldom in much variety. The only part of Europe of which mineral waters are characteristic is the Khenish country of Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. From tho evidence already beforo us, there really seems reason to believe that we have quite as much variety in such waters ns the Ilhineland, while hero there is the manifest advantage that they are within a much closer circle. Of course, wo have only yet the opportunity for general comparison. Tho quality of our springs, at large, must be thoroughly tested. But, one thing is certainly beyond all doubt, that our resources of this sort are exceptionally valuable.

A sanatorium of many mineral waters, such as the Rhine districts furnish to Europe, is wanted at this side of the world, where colonies are advancing so fast. Australia seems, like most countries, to have but few of these springs. Indeed, the only one we have yet heard of is, the chalybeate water of Ballan, in "Victoria, which is sent to Melbourne and some neighboring towns. There has always been an exodus from India, of persons in search of health, and tho number every year increases, from the Chinese and other coasts of the North Pacific, where a tropical climate enervates the European constitution. Health-seekers are sure to congregate from many quarters. And, as people who travel in quest of health are usually, also, in quest of pleasure, and, by their example, draw others after them, all parts of New Zealand will participate in tho advantage of a concourse of strangers ; for, although the South Island is not the chief site of the mineral waters, it has fine scenery as well as our North Island, and scenery of sometimes an alpine grandeur. As we havo not had these hygienic waters represented at the Sydney Exhibition, we must take care that it is properly done at tho Melbourne one, and with an exposition of their respective curative properties to accompany the collection of samples.