THE ROTORUA DISTRICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12190, 9 February 1903, Page 5

THE ROTORUA DISTRICT.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS.

interview With siR R. stout.

[by telegraph.—own correspondent.]

Wellington-, Sunday. Yesterday I called upon Sir Robert Stout,who has just returned from Auckland, ana having heard that he had spent some time in the thermal district, after an absence of some years, I asked if he would care to give me some idea of the changes he had noted and of the/ development of the district's through which he had travelled. Sir Robert, though evidently busy with a pres3 of Supreme Court work, readily acquiesced. "After an absence of four years,"he said, " I visited Rotorua, and saw great improvements everywhere. The public garden 01 the Sanatorium at Rotorua 's now finer than anything of the. kind in New Zealand. in fact, it is unique. It is beautifully laid out, and the paths wind pleasantly amongst beautiful flowers and shrubbery. In the centre of the grounds there i 3 a rotunda, where, in the season, a band plays four days a week. The ciimate is such as makes openair concerts an enjoyable form of entertainment. One night while I was there in the holiday season there were about a thousand tourists in Rotorua, and the scene,, with hundreds of people thronging the beautiful grounds, with their boiling pools and small geysers playing, was a very beautiful and animated one. There are no* fewer than 26 boardinghouses and three hotels in the township. There is also accommodation at Whakarewarowa. About three-fourths of the visitors stayed at the boardinghouses. " What struck me about that was that we need not be alarmed about the cry that people will not visit out tourist resorts if there are no hotels at which they could get liquor. In this connection it may be worth mentioning also that I stayed at a hotel at Wairakei, and that while there I noticed that not one-quarter of the guests took liquor. It does not seem necessary therefore to consider the occasional tourist in dealing with our liquor question. "Since I was in the district four years ago I found that great improvements had been mad© in the roads, and generally in the means of getting about to the various points of interest. There are two steam, launches on Rotorua and one on Rotoiti, and these are largely availed of. Recently a road has been made to the wonderful Waimangu geyser, and there is now also an excellent road from Rotorua to Taupo, via Waiotapu. At "Wairakei I also found great improvements. This, I think, is the most restful place of all. In the fine air of this district and amidst the beautiful and very wonderful surroundings, one could spend a quiet week or two very pleasantly. One tiling struck me as necessary, the means of communication must be improved, and the time must soon oome when either they must have an electric tram or a motor car service between Rotorua and Taupo. Perhaps the largo amount of power that is at present running to waste in the Waikato River might be utilised. I feel sure if something were done in this direction far more people would be found visiting Taupo than now. " The trout fishing is another attraction. I found a great number of people fishing above Galatea, and also in the Waikato; about Rotorua also there is wonderful fishing. ■ •" What pleased me more than anything else on my travels, however, was the foot, that the Maoris are really learning industrial pursuits. Everywhere I found them working. They can be seen road-making, treeplanting, coach-driving, waiting at the ac-commodation-houses, acting as carpenters and painters, and generally making themselves useful. They are preparing for the foundations of the new baths at the Rotorua Sanatorium, and at the Whakarewarewa nursery I found them doing all the work under tho able superintendence of Mr. Goudie. " That nursery is one of the interesting flights of the district. Troes are reared for the plantations at Waiotapu. No fewer than 300,000 trees came from the nursery last year for transplanting. It is marvellous the number of young trees there are there, and thoy are all well attended to, and kept free from weeds of all sorts. Ik struck me that what was going on in the way of treeplanting in the central part of the North Island goes to prove that tho most barrenlooking land may be made profitable. The Government certainly deserve great praise for pushing on this work. The forests of the world are being depleted year by year, and timber is becoming more and more valuable. Our own kauri and totara forests are also fast vanishing, and it is therefore all the more necessary that this good work should be pushed on energetically. I fancy that it will also be found that the alluvial flats bordoriug the river will prove good fruit-growing lands. Altogether, I think there is a great future before what was formerly considered to bo merely the waste lands of this great central region." Sir Robert added that he had come down from New Plymouth by train, and ho was pleased to find a great improvement in the train arrangements. There appeared to be a general improvement in the railway management on that and other linos, and he addod that tho Tourist Department also seemed excellently managed.