A RAMBLE ROUND WHAKAREWAREWA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13134, 24 March 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RAMBLE ROUND WHAKAREWAREWA.

t lIV THE REV. I'. STL*liltS. TORI'A. I shall never forget my first visit to Whakarewarewa. It was a little earlier in the summer, ten years ago. There was no footpath then, and one had to walk along lie hot, dusty road. Arrived there, one found one's entrance blocked by a toll of Is 6d ; now, with the exception of a portion of the native pa, the whole is free. Then. too. the whole place was in a state of nature: now there are well-kept paths, and seats, and various othei conveniences of civilisation, not omitting a caretaker, who sees that you take nothing away. This latter official is, indeed, quite needful, for otherwise the beautiful silicious and sulphur formations would soon be quite spoiled by the vandalism of tourists. As it is, pieces are sometimes broken off, and the, seats placed by the Government in various parts of the gardens for the convenience of visitors are hacked about with knives. I suppose this- craze for hacking or breaking, is allied to the desire for killing something which is said to be inherent in the English race. However, on the whole, the civilising of Whakarewarewa has been well done, and it is one of the very few instances I know of where interference with remarkable natural phenomena has not impaired the original interest and beauty. . $ Whakarewarewa is only one mile and ahalf from Rotorua, and is approached by a good road and a pleasant footpath, the latter shaded for some distance by an avenue of trees. Arrived at Whaka., as it is generally called by residents, for the sake of brevity, one notices THE NATIVE SCHOOL 011 the right, where native children, to the number of 66, are taught. This is probably the most efficient native school in the colony, and reflects great credit 011 the master, the Rev. H. W. Burgoyne, formerly of Dunedin. Some years ago M'r. Burgoyne's health broke down, and so he was eventually led to take up teaching, much to the advantage of the natives of Whaka. The school has only been opened for four years, and the progress made by the scholars in so short a time is really astonishing, their writing especially surpassing any that I have seen in the same standards in European schools. It must be remembered, too, that each of these scholars has to learn two languages, and the difficulties of the teacher are increased by the fact that instruction has to be given"- in what to many of the children is at first a foreign tongue. My inspection of this and other native - schools has led me to the conclusion that the Maori is quite as .quick to learn as the European child, and in studies requiring dexterity of hand even quicker, their faculty in drawing and writing beinglinhcrited, I take it, from their parents and ancestors, who were nearly all expert carvers. Their memories, too, appear to be more tenacious than those of European children, doubtless due to the fact that past. generations of Maoris, like all uncivilised races, had nothing but memory to rely upon. All the old stories and legends of the native race were, of course, preserved in this way. ,

Leaving the native school we come to the Geyser Hotel, a. thoroughly comfortable and well-managed hostelry, and opposite to this are the new tearooms and the new carved house, opened by the Premier on March 12, both belonging, to the -Messrs. Nathan, as do also the various hotels in the district. -

We next come to the bridge over, the Puarenga Stream, which few cross without pausing to look at the Maori children diving for coins. Formerly young children only werfe employed in this way, but now many youths and big girls, attracted doubtless by the dollars, are engaged in the business, and they are not nearly so interesting and amusing, and might well employ themselves in more serious work and leave this form of entertainment to the little ones. But let us linger no longer on the bridge, but cross over and look around.

THE MAORI PA. The enclosure on the right is the Maori pa, and here the natives dwell in almost — though not quiteprimitive simplicity. They are cooking, washing, and bathing nearly all day long, and seem to live an idle, careless, happy life. They are living, however, on the very verge of eternity, for the whole place is honeycombed with steam holes and boiling water and mud. Yet, strange to say, it is exceedingly rare for anyone to get seriously injured., Certainly a woman once tumbled into yonder cauldron and was scalded to death, and a boy (or was it a girl)-into yonder pool, but as a rule children —even the youngest —-seem instinctively to avoid the dangerous places. I have seen little tots of two or three yeais of age playing about spots where I myself had to look well before planting my feet. But they almost always manage to escape any serious injury, though slight scalds are. noi infrequent. Close by this cauldron there is a small champagne pool. Take up a handful of soil and throw it into the water, and immediately the water foams and bubbles like freshly-opened champagne. 1 presume the phenomenon is attributable to alkaline earth being thrown into an acid water, and I have observed the same thing on a larger scale at Waiotapu and elsewhere. It is a very pretty and interesting experiment. The long shed in front of these pools contains the oil baths. These baths belong to the Geyser Hotel, and have been in a very dilapidated condition. A week or two ago steam was rising through the very boards, which were fast rotting under the action, and it seemed as though one might at any' moment find oneself being steamed to death. But lam pleased to observe that they are now being repaired. The baths themselves air most delicious and soothing to the skin. Though called oil baths there is really nothing oily about them except the name, and this latter was given, I presume, because of the delicious, velvety feel of the water, which reminds one of the Rachel Bath, in Botorua, as it was ten years ago. But before we leave this reserve, for which an entrance fee of Is 6d is charged by the natives, I must show the reader a washing hole where a remarkable incident took place, 18 months ago.

A SUING EXTRAORDINARY. Some Maori girls, having put their washing ,i'n ithei pool, accompanied some visitors round the reserve, awl were just returning when to their surprise and consternation they saw their clothes thrown violently in the'air by an eruption that had broken out in the pool. The Maori girls could do nothing but look on, and while doing so had the mortification of seeing a portion of thenclothing suddenly disappear into the mouth of the "geyser. 'After bemoaning the loss of their garments they were about to move away when one of the parly picked up a lady's purse which had been shot out of the pool, and on opening it found within a greenstone brooch, on which was written hi gold letLfi's the name Lucy. How long the°purse had been in the pool it is difficult to say, but beyond being saturated with water"it was in a good state of preservation. Whether the clothes have been returned yet J have not heard. This pool is connected with other pools underground, and occasionally erupts in the form of a gevser. When' the' gevser action occurs the laundresses have to run, and sometimes a portion of the clothes instead of being thrown out. are sucked in by the retiring water. And although hey are usually returned on some future occasion they have been made such sport of by the powers beneath that thev are no longer lit to use. Only last week 1 saw a tent cloth which had been so used, and although if had been retained by the infernal powers only 48 hours it had been smashed and torn to such an extent a* to be uselessat least above ground.

! Leaving the Maori reserve we emerge again on the mad. and here on lie lett you will see the billiard-room, which seems an almost indispensable adjunct to a Maori pa nowadays, and here at any hour of the day young, strapping Maoris may be seen handling the cue. A short time ago the inspector ! of native schools in his reprt to the Education Department, referred to the gambling ! and consequent poverty associated with na- ; tive billiard-playing. 'Whether these evils i are associated with the game at W haka. I • cannot of my own knowledge say. A little J beyond the billiard-room and a few feet | from the road may be noticed a great hole, I choked up with steaming earth and debris, j which has the appearance of having fallen ' in. Eight years ago this hole was tilled i with boiling water, and a young'half-caste ! woman was standing by bidding her friends | farewell. I have been informed that they J were pressing her to stay longer, but that ; she, forgetting the proximity of the pool, | playfully swung herself away and slipped into the hot water, and although she was immediately got out was so severely scalded that she died. Only last November it may lie remembered a similar accident happened to a, little boy at Ohinemutu. Ho that although it is marvellously seldom that such accidents happen they do occasionally occur, and it might be as well for you to tread carefully in these regions, and keep to the [aiths already beaten by human feet. SOPHIA. Sitting outside Mrs. Nicholson's tea-tent (her favourite seat) is Sophia, the ancientguide, and " the noblest Roman of them all," whose enviable privilege it was to save 39 lives on the occasion of the great Tarawera eruption of 1886. She then lived at W airoa, and in the appalling darkness, amidst the pitiless hail of stones and ashes, gathered many of the people into her strongly-built wharc, and so saved their lives. Some 130 natives, it may be remembered, and six Europeans perished. Sophia is how 78, and greatly enjoys a chat with some passing tourist. But her heroic conduct on the night of the eruption has never, 1 believe, met with any adequate acknowledgment. Ascending the slope we pass the new Roman (Jatholic Church on the left, built chiefly by Father Krienberg's own hands, for he is a practical builder «'.nd carpenter as well as priest,, and the Roman Catholic Church m the colony is much indebted to his labours. But the foundations of the Roman Catholic Churchof this church at all events—appear anything but secure, and instead of being founded on the rock, the church rests on a thin crust of scoria, from the fissures of which underneath the building the steam is ever hissing out. Let us hope that the Church has a more solid foundation elsewhere, but here at all events it appears most precarious. One devoutly hopes that the minister and congregation will not some fine Sunday suddenly find themselves in hot water! Above the church on the hill is the old Maori burying ground, which is, of course, tapu, and woe be to the intruding pakeha who dares to cross its threshold. A little below is the resting-place of tne great Arawa chief i'e Keepa Rangipuawhe, who died last year, and .'whose monument lias just been unveiled by Mr. Seddon. He was the last of the great Arawa chiefs, and had rendered the British valuable service at the time of the Maori war. In recognition of this fact the Government gave him a pension during life, and honoured him with a military funeral at his death. THE GEYSER PLATEAU. And now passing through the gates we come to " the very pulse of the machine," the throbbing heart of Whakarewarewa, where the earth quivers, and the geysers play, and the bursting veins jerk forth their jets of boiling fluid. The principal geyser is YVairoa. Formerly it played naturally, and sometimes for half an hour or more/ but now after long contact with civilis;lt ion it refuses to appear in public until it has been well soaped, and then nothing less than two bars of this article will satisfy its demands. After this supply, duly cut,into, slices-, has been dropped into its capacious mouth, the first intimations of action take place in the form of internal rumblings, which may lie regarded as grunts of satisfaction, which grow more and more pronounced, until a huge white lather appears, to be followed in a few minutes by an eruption, when there shoots up a marvellous column of clear water from 100 ft to 150 ft high, presenting, when the air is still and the sun shining, a truly magnificent spectacle, a column of liquid crystal, which it is worth going far to see. Near by are Mfclie-r attractive, though lesser displays. Waikorohihi" (hissing waters), a little to the right of the path, is almost always playing, so is Keruru (pigeon), the pretty geyser just above the Puarenga Stream, which throws up a column of water from 15ft to 40ft high about every 15 minutes. Then there is the Prince of Wales' Feather, and the Torpedo, and last, but not least, Point- • tu (the splasher), which plays only intermittently—sometimes resting for months, at other times playing almost daily ; but when it plays sending up a magnificent column of water from 50ft to 100 f- high. "

Occasionally I have seen three or four of these geysers all playing together, affording a beautiful and never-to-be-forgotten, sight. Not many years ago another great geyser, Waikiti, was active. It occupied the most commanding position of all, and when in action could be seen a great distance away, but strange to say, on the very day the railway at Rotorua was opened, in 1894, by Mr. Seddon, it suddenly ceased, and has never played since.' Whether it objected to the presence of our burly Premier or simply shared Mr. jßuskin's dislike of the iron road I do not know, but there is the fact that it suddenly took the sulks and lias* been sulking ever since. Space forbids more than a brief mention of the other attractions of Wliaka. On every side, e.g., are pools of boiling mud of various colour, consistency, and size, the steam beneath causing lily-shaped bubbles to form continually, and portions of mud to leap up like huge frogs into the air, only to drop back again as though suddenly bereft of life. A quarter of a mile away, by the side of the stream, is also another perpetual geyser, the Papakura, ever boiling furiously in its cauldron, and throwing up columns of water from 20ft "to 30ft high. THE STORY OF TUKUTUKU. Not far from this, too, is the cave where Tukutuku hid with his servant for two years, He was a warlike chief of the Arawas, and incited his tribe, then living in Ohinemutu, to war against surrounding tribes. Rut in the midst of the conflict he sneaked away like a coward,, leaving his people to face the conflict lie had aroused as best they could. He fled with his servant to Whaka., and hid in this cave. For a- long time his deserted warriors sought him in vain, lint at length as his servant was seeking fern roots for his master over the hills above Whaka. he was seen by other members of his tribe, who followed him to the cave, took the cowardly chief captive, cut off bis head. and boiled his brains in the fumarole, hence called the brain pot, situated just above the Wairoa Geyser; afterwards eating the brains, with the idea that, the virtue of the deceased chief would thus pass into them. There are other sights in Whaka, well worth seeing, such as the model pa, lately constructed by the Government.; the huge boiling lake, near the nursery grounds: the spoilt baths: the nursery gardens themselves, with their beautiful' display of shrubs and flowers, but my space, and possibly the reader's patience, is exhausted, and any description of these must await a. future occasion.

Lamp trials are presently to be held by tlx 5 ' Automobile Club, and a Sketch writer hopes to see some tests instituted for determining the comparative blinding effect of the power and penetration of rays of light of yellow tones' such as those thrown by the powerful head-lights without which driving a motor-car at night is fraught with some danger. What should be aimed at is (lie (lame of oil or pAraflin lamps. The light so given could be projected the necessary distance by skilful focussing and lens arrangements. There was an Knglish-built ratlin-burning headlight put upon tin; market some time since which was rather ugly in appearance, hut which, with a little, optical improvement, would have come very near to satisfying all requirements.