COLONIAL SKETCHES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2087, 22 February 1894, Page 45

COLONIAL SKETCHES.

By Edith Searle Grossmann.

HOLIDAY LIFE AT THE HANMER PLAINS.

11. But now it is about time to describe the Bprings themselves. I must confess the first view of the springs was a disillusion. I had for years imagined a barren tract, with geysers and steaming water, volcanic mud, underground rumbling, and a general resemblance to the infernal regions. Instead of all this, I saw trim gardens blazing with poppies, |jred gladiolug, and roses; a lawn of green grass, a haystack, a hedge of silver birch and Scotch fir, and three wooden cottages with verandahs full of people. One feels at first almost disposed to ask, " But what has become of the springs 1 " They are there, however. When the wooden lids are removed you can see a turbid blue water bumbling up. If you have any faith in the effects of albuminoid and ammonia as a beverage, and if you relish the taste of hot water flavoured by very stale eggs, you can drink the water from an enamel mng as often as you like.

The bathrooms are very much like those in any private house, but the water certainly

gives quite a different sensation. It is thick with mineral substances, and leaves a sulphurous deposit round the bath. It is an intense blue in colour, and very buoyant. We can regulate the degree of heat, but only to a limited extent, as the so-called " cold water "is about 80deg Fahr. The swimming pool, whioh is open to the sun, is suitable, I am told, to the constitution of a salamander. "" One very large element in the curative effect of these springs is faith, though it is not put down in the analysis. The official opinion declares that the compound " indicates " rheumatism, sciatica, &c, from September to July, and various other diseases for the remainder of the year. The precise meaning of "indicates" is discreetly left for the patient to ascertain. Seriously, there is little doubt that on certain constitutions the effects of the springs are extremely beneficial, while to others who have apparently the same disease they are decidedly harmful. A word of warning to future visitors : It is a great mistake to have an excessively hot bath, to stay in more than 10 minutes, and to neglect precautions against takiDg cold when you come out. Besides, it must bo remembered that for some rheumatic persons the heat is one thing necessary, while for others it ia the chief thing to be avoided. A little common sense is almost as useful as sulphur in cases of this kind. Beside the advantage of the mineral waters, we have tho benefit of pure mountain air ; for the plains are situated at a considerable altitude above the sea — 1300 ft they say. Then when we are tired of discussing past and present ailments with companion convalescents, what joy to wander out among the heights and ridges, to feel at home among the hills ! The enchantment of the mountains falls upon us, the wonderful mountains with all their changing lights and aspects. They are not grand like the Alps, but just high enough to give the sense of elevation as we lift up our eyes to their summits. Nor are they beautiful like the wooded ranges of Wellington and Taranaki. The hand of the destroyer — "the brutal Ecglishman," as Adams calls him — has been upon them. Fire and the axe have left only vestiges of the forests and woods that once grew purple and dusky with the beauty of the morning and of the evenicg. Now clay and rock and shingleslide show grim and bare on their ruins. In dull weatbar the hills have a dead tonelessness of tint, and Ihe plains are dreary. On wei, days the mist and clouds curl round their tops and up their glens, until the rain be its faster and nearer, and wo look out into a blank whiteness. Tuen from some invisible rift far off the sun shines and the tussocks and the grass glow like emerald and gold. Next morning all is as soft as

velvet in the sunlight. In a nor"-west gale with a bright sun the hills all round the weather quarter are of a deep ametbyßt; while sunset lights up the landslips with pale pink. The north-eaßt wind veils them in hazes of pale blue that the sunset kindles into yellow flame. For those who are strong and adventurous there is a pleasure of unlimited exploration among remote recesses and clefts, by stream and waterfall and bush, or over the Bleep pass to where the Clarence spreads its deep green waters. To this river parties go troutUshiog. Even the sportsman can find some amusement among the hills, where paradise ducks and blue ducks are still to be found. But this would better have remained a secret, lest these beautiful birds should become — like so much else that once made New Zealand lovely — a memory of the past.