HANMER HOT SPRINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 53

HANMER HOT SPRINGS.

THE SOUTHERN ISLAND SANATORIUM AND PREMIER LOAFING GROUND OF NEW ZEALAND.

By Walter H. Pearson.

CHAPTER VII. ACCOMMODATION (CONTINUED).— MR HOOD'S NEW KOTEIi.

With'n a few hundred yurda of the bath grounds and facing tbeir northern entrance Mr Hcod, of Jcllie's Pass, has just erected a fine two-storey building. In tbe upper floor there are 17 bedrooms of s'ze (single and double), two suites pf private rooms — i.e., sitting room, with bedroom attached, — bathroom and lavatory. On the ground floor there are a drawing, dining, andnnoking room (sli large), awritiog room, and a private sitting room, with bedroom attached. The halls are wide and lofty, being 12Eb high, as are all the rooms. There is a deep verandah facing the couth. The house is well furnished and appointed iv every way. I am not aware that it is yet licensed. It could comfortably accommodate 60 to 65 first c'asa guests, and, should necessity require, satisfactory shakedowns on stretchers might be made available in the wide halls and smoking room for gome 25 or 30 more. The surrounding grounds are as yet in embryo. Terms £2 2a per week for firsfc clas3 boarders.

jovlie's pass hotel,

Some two miles and a-half north-east from r,L& baths, aad situated at tbe foot of Jollies Pass, is Mr Hood's hotel proper, a licensed house, kcown as the Jollies Pass Hotel. The original building of one storey has been added to by tbe erection of a good-sized two-storeyed house, capable in all of accommodating 40 lodgers. It contains a billiard send smoking roota, a large drawing room, and private sitting rooms. There is a good orchard a.ud tennis courl;. The terms ars £2 2s ptx week first class and £1 5* second cluss, or daily charges of 7s and 4» respectively. As from Mrs Lahmevt's Jack's Pasa Hott-1, there is, free from charge, communication with the batb.3 twica a day by coacb. »nd buggy — forenoon and afternoon.

MKS FAWCETT'S HOUSE.

Within some two or three hundred yards of tbe bath ground? Mrs Fawcett has recently built a nice cottage, two xoomi (14 x 14 and 14x 12) of which »he devotes to the accommodation of lodgers. The rooms a-e lofty, clean, and well attended to. Their situation — within hail of the baths and Isolation from other lodgers — adapts them admirably for invalids ; particularly as Mrs Fawcetb was, I believe, trained as a nurse. Ladifcs with families of young children would find theee lodgings fulfil their requlrsments better thnn any other. Taking both rooms the terms are very moderate, and the little ones would find themselves monarchs of all they survey, which would be of advantage to themselves and to others ; for though doubtless the young angtls are a perpetual joy to their mothers, the male human, unaccustomed to the luxury of being clawed by buttery or treacly fingers, does noa always realise that to bs in the society of "a soaring human boy " is one of the blessings a benign Providence has vouchsafed to man, and may be so brutally constructed as to prefer the note of the skylark to I the yell of the cherub. ! THE GOVERNMENT SANATORIUM, This buiidiog has been recently erected by ths Gavernment regardless of expense aud at considerable cost to the taxpayers of the colony. It is a fine establishment, having a general sitting room, ladies' drawing room. smoking_ room, aud diuiug room, all large aud lofty ; a caretaker's sitting room, office, consulting room, kitchea, pantries, wafchbouse, scullery, all oC good size also. There are three double bedroom?, 15 x 14, and two single, 15 x 9, at 43s per week ; three double and two single, 12 x 10, at 40s ; and two rooms, 12 x 10, with two single beds in each for third class lodgers, at 20s a week ; washhouse, scullery, &c, with *, high-pressure boiler — indeed, all tae conveniences are under ths one roof with the mainbnilding, and gas is laid on to every room. It his a broad verandah facing the east., and can accommodate 16 guests. If expense iv the erection of the building has been treated with a lordly indifference its furnishing is on a comineiisurahe scale, one which neither the exigencies of the position would warrant in a private investor nor his sanity tolerate. But like the flies in amber — Not that tbe thing is either rich or rare, . You wonder how the devil it Rot there. As I have already shown, tha private houses could in the aggregate afford ample accommodation for ab least 138 guests, which on a pinch could be extended to 168. And Ido not think these resources will be taxed to their maximum at any one time. Hanmer, unlike Rotorua, is not on the tourist carte. The question naturally arises : Why did the Government pub up at the public cost, and very much at ib 3 cosb, a house of accommodation to compete with the private enterprise which is more than sufficient to meet the requirements of the place, and which has had to bear the heat and burden of the day during the past, when I the attendance at the Springs was sparse, besides handicapping it by granting free admission to the swimming baths to those staying at the sanatorium ? If it is urged that the proximity of the e&nitorium to the baths is an advantage to invalids who could not bear the strain ot' a daily drive of from one and a-h.aU to

two and a-half miles, bub can be wheeled in a bath chair from the Government buildings, I can only say that a patient could as easily be wheeled from Mr Hood's new hotel or Mrs Fawcett's cottage as from the sanatorium, and during the three weeks I was there I saw only one case that required ifc. If, however, a misUTre has been made in erecting with public moneyfo hotel that is not required for public convenience, and is an injustice to private enterprise, a greater error has been perpetrated in misusing these moneys that should have been devoted to the building of a sanatorium proper, or hospital, for that " liberal mouthful" the working man, where he could have been comfortably housed and tended at from 15s to 20a » week, and have felt at home with his surroundings atidcaojpanions — in fact, a Government institution to which " benevolent, trustees" or managers of "old men's homes " could have forwarded inmates requiring the advantages of the hot springs, or to which labouring men with restricted means could have resorted of their own accord ; such as is the sensible sanatorium at Rotorua, as it is ths child of a patnrnal Government, the working man has be in carefully built oub by bis amiable relation. Keen are his pangs, but keener far to feel 'Twas his own pappy that impell'd the steel.

j It cm hardly be expected that the private I hotels will accommodate them. The groans of Dives are bad enough to bear in weatherboard establbhccients, particularly by tho3e who 3 cannot esp'ect to get anything out of him escept groans ; but Lazarus — faugh ! the angelp, according to the attributes wherewith we clothe them, doubtless delight in .Laz%rus, but he is nob of the colour to please society angels ; nor would he, poor fellow, feel comfortable attempting ;t. It [ is true there are two bedrooms in the sana- ) torium devoted to the humbler clay of humanity lodged and boarded at 20a a week, but the representative of the toilers (Dickens's Chadband called them "the toilers and moilers," our Government programme stops at "the toilers") racked with rheumatism — he would not go to tb.e spring 3 unless he were, — conld no!> well breathe freely amidst the galaxy j of nature's* nobility. The clay pipkiu must in that stream float along with the brass poX " I Thsre is only one dining room, smoking room. 5 sitting room, bedroom for pipkin and pot. If i Mr Jingles's "upper dockyard people did not know lower dockyard people, and lower dockyard people did not know tradespeople" 1 in a small port town in England, how ' I much more is thi<i emphasised ia a colony ■ where your upper dockyarder not infrequently ; is in a measure forced to be upper- dockyardi'sb. ! . for is' not the okeleton in his cupboard — that horrid toadstool from which he has evoluted., i The intension of the Government wa3 doublj less well meant, but it has been misadviffed, and the best thing to be dona now is either to i devote the present bttildiog to a sanatorium ■ ; proper, as at ftotoiua, for the accommodation of the poorer classes, reducing the charges to , meet its capacity, or build a new building at • tjhe rear of an.i adjoining the present one on fcne correct lines. THE GOY.EBNMENT GROUNDS. Out of the Government reserves of 4- i 2 roiles, lying at an elevation of 1220 ft, there is • a veritable oxsis of pleasure ground, covering ; soxitiH 5 acres, cut out on the north-east end of ■ the plain, within the enclosure of which -ara ; 1 erected the caretaker's house, post office and iielegraph station, and two bath buildings. The ■ grounds ace laid out in lawn and flower beds, 1 tennia court, and bowling green, with nicely ' gravelled walks where necessary, avid a broad 1 carriage driv», through which the coach from Oulyerden daily passes, the whole being ■ enclosed by a good Cupreseus macrocarpa ' hedge, on the inside of which a broad belt at 1 birches, oaks, laurels, poplaM, and other choica 1 trees has been planted, and are now of size and perfection in form. The grounds • are artistically Inid-- out, and beautifully kept under the supervision of the admirable caretakers Mr and Mrs Roger*, who : have evidently ucconiplifched to the wall-being ' of their fellow pilgrims, the destiny of their ■ creation ; which is more than can be said of the 1 majority of humans. And when it is considered j that the whole enclosure is made ground carted on to a hungry gravel, too much praise can • hardly be accorded to the caretaker, Mr Rogeis. { The grasp, brightly green, is kept well mown ; while the beds are radiant with every variety of colour and beauty, prominent amongst which is a large assortment of the Campanula rptundi■iolja, or family of blue bell, in lovely shade?, antirrhinums, and tea roses. Near tbe caretaker's house tbe climbing Devoniensis and Marechal Niel, children of ambition, have mounted the hedga of tree?, and smile down I from impossible heights on the would-bs purloiner; while the deep verandah is a blaze of colour and beauty with, pots of pelargonium, geranium, and convolvuli in great variety, and of a form the perf ectness of which breathe! the tender care of a loving hand, R»in bsing an unknown quantity daring summer at Hanmer, water has bssen laid on to the grounds in pipes with a goad pressure, which the indisrubber- saakes in graceful fold distribute to the thirsty grass and plants. Of a bright, sunny afternoon, when all the guests stopping at ths various homes are assembled in tho grounds disporting themselves in accordance with the dictates of years arid health, the tout ensemble is pretty and interesting. Here Nausicaa, Hi he of form and bright of smile, beats the ball of tennis cleverly ; the while, out of the corner of her mischiefloving eye, she sees poor Strephon modestly apart, gaz'ng forlornly, with face on which "a tablet of unutterable thoughts" is writ,"and she feels Strephon is young — very young. Ah ! "why does he only gazs?" On the bowling green are those whose gazing days are oo'err r but who, with "fair round belly, with good capon lined," are content to roll the ball along, and, forsooth, to find pleasure therein. While on yonder bench, ia shady cook, the old, old story peemß to bs enacting. Soft f yes look'd love to eyes which spake again. One hand on. Juan's carelessly was thrown Quite by mistake — she thought it wjs her own. j "Ah"! I remarked to the old lady sitting beside me, who evidently was living life over again in the little drama we were both noticing, "a newly married couple"! "Not - much," she gruntf d ; " tco fond." " Probably," -I returned, "only married g week." "Too long," she replied; "all up in a week." Disgusted with this old cynic I rose, and turning round saw x stout old gentleman whose fiery eye-was also fixed on the distant platonically conversing couple ; while with furrowed brow he was evidently quietly but deeply cussing. { Good gracious, thought I, le mart of yondev | lovely sylph ? impossible. It wa«, however, and young friend of family doing Plato. Oh Plato! Plato ! you have paved the way,With your confounded fantasies . Standing apart looking on at the scene gay with sunshine, bright flowers, smopth lawn, and human butterflies in every variety of colour disporting thereon', one would imagine ifc was a garden party given- by some New Zealand multi-millionaire with a.n overdraft at his bank

of £130,000 and a heavy mortgage; breaklafc down the rooftree of his house ' -