SCENIC WONDERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12409, 23 October 1903, Page 5

SCENIC WONDERS OF NEW ZEALAND.

EXCITING INCIDENT AT WAIMANGU. [by telegraph.—special correspondent.]

Thursday. Mb. T. A. Grady, representing the Oceanic Steamship Company, and Mr. V. A. Spraul, passenger agent for the company at Auckland, have arrived in Wellington after a trip through the North Island. They had a rather exciting experience the other day when at Waimangu, showing that the area of danger in the vicinity of the geyser is becoming greater. They were standing near the shelter shed,when the entire contents of the crater, including large boulders and mud, spouted up to a height of 900 ft, and at the j same time a cross action took place, which spurted a quantity of muddy water and volvanic debris at their very feet. They had to take to their heels to avoid trouble. Mr. Grady is strongly of opinion that there is nothing like Waimangu in the world as a tourist attraction, and when this marvellous geyser becomes known in America the tourist traffic will be enormous. Both gentlemen continue their tour of the colony on Saturday, when they leave for Picton, Nelson, and the West Coast, where their intention is to visit every spot with pretensions to scenic beauty, including the Duller Gorge, the Otira'Gorge, and other places, of interest to tourists. Then they will go overland to Christ church and Dunedin, and on to the Lakes. The purpose of this tour is to gather information of New Zealand from a scenic aspect, to be embodied in illustrated hooks and pamphlets, to be scattered broadcast over the American continent by the Oceanic ' Steamship Company. It .is alleged that ! some 150,000 people leave the cities of the i Eastern States every spring for the West, | a great number of them really ignorant as I to where they will spend the summer, and i these people scatter themselves over Cali- ! fornia, and some visit Honolulu and Japan. j Were the scenic wonders of this colony put j before such people the travellers are eonI vinced that a rush would set in annually for i New Zealand, and it is their mission, as far i as lies in their power, to send the exodus i .this way.