A TRIP TO TE AROHA HOT SPRINGS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XI, Issue 3185, 4 December 1878, Page 3

A TRIP TO TE AROHA HOT SPRINGS.

Me. and Mrs. Stephenson made a trip to ■ Omaha last week with a view of exploring ' tho country about to be opened up to the \ agriculturists and settlors of tho Thames, Tho passage up the river to Olrinemuri is so weR known that little need be sa ; d. On arrival they were transhipped into that smart little steamer, the ' Riro Biro,' owned and commanded by Pipipinio, a very respectable and intelligent native of tho Aroha district, and whose attention to his duties and the wants of the passen. . gers under his charge would vie with many of our more professed intelligent white sea captains. After leaving Paeroa and steaming eight or nine miles through a large Kahikatea forest, a magnificent view presentsitself, -stretching forth as far as the eye can see, in one vast undulating plain with gentle rises, to Cambridge, the Waitoa and Piako districts, the river only being obscured, as you round tho Aroha mountain up the river in the direction of Matamata, some thirty miles beyond Omaha to the large farm and station now being brought under subjeotion and cultivation by that enterprising settler and poineer, Mr Firth, to whom we. are largely indebted, in being able to navigate the river on aocount of tho many dangerous snags and other impediments incident to a comparatively unknown and new district, shortly to be opened up to the enterprise and industry of the people of this, district, and others who will undoubtedly flock to a country possessing so many natural advantages, and which at the present time is so little understood, that the valley of the Thames is largo enough and capable of producing corn and other cereals to feed half the population of England. On arriving at a small settlement, two miles below Omahu, about 26 miles below Oldnemuri the tourists landed, and 1 wore welcomed on shore by a few native friends and the only white settler in that locality, Mr Joseph Smalman, the friend and mate' of the late, Walter Williamson, and who wereamongst the first prospectors of the Tbanvs district for gold. It was here it was announced the Pakeha waihane was the first white woman who had gone so far up the river, and the historical event has yet to be recorded in the annals of old New Zealand. In endeavouring to show the value of this important district, the neglect and obcurity it has for so long laboured under through misgovernment, the large areas of land that have been monopolised and secured to the detri men t of the honafide settler, we are brought to tho consideration of that all important subject the Thames Valley Railway, and one can hardly conceive it possible that a Government possessing both funds and energy, should for a moment delay its construe- ; lion or hinder for a moment the opening ' up of a country of such magnificent and extensive capabilities. Following the survey of the late Mr Simpson, at a point called tho Governor, Omahu, at the base of the mountain, the proposed terminus of the Waikato and Thames line, the junction of all the roads, and river communication, a tree has been planted by Sir George Grey, in commemoration of his visit-the banks of the river are higher and the approaches dry and not liable to be washed away by floods, is the best site for a bridge to cross the river in connection with the railway, the Thames, and adjoining County road boards. To divert the road, or bring it up tho river to the locality indicated by some interested • persons would simply stop tho river traffic, as the land is lower, swampy, and easily flooded, tho approaches on each side at some seasons of the year havo to be done by boat, as tho embankments would bo covered with water. Tho hot springs hero are reported to bo of marvellous efficacy by tho natives, rivalling the most famous on the Continent of, Europe, and who can tell but in this Baden Baden of ours we shall find a cure for all the ills that flesh is heir to. The Thames County boundary and road terminates at this point, and knowing some of the difficulties the Councillors and their energetic chairman, Mr Brodie, had to contend with in this particular locality, the taci and ability they have shown iu putting through the road, stamps them as men of no ordinary ability and energy, and I feel that in adding a tribute of praise to the Thames County Council that they are justly and deservedly entitled to it; 1 at the same time they should not ovor--1 look the agency or means by which they ' accomplished the desirable end, however 1 small it may have been. But more of this anon. After spending three days of the most rural character, enjoying the balmy atmosphere of rivers, glens, valleys, and mountains, and receiving the friendly hospitalites of tho natives in all directions, one feels almost inclined to resign the boasted civilisation of the present 1 century, with all its attendant anxieties, the competition of life, and attendant • responsibilities, and become a Maori, and, ' revelling in the primitiveness and poetry 1 of Sir Walter Scott, exclaim,—

And huge Ben Vue, as down the vale his

masses threw, Knogs, kDolls, and mounds confusedly hurled, The fragineuts of an earlier world,

-We again boarded the ' Biro Biro,' and the liltle craft skimmed down the river witli the current at a rapid pace to Ohinemuri, transhipping again to the more commodious aud comfortable boat ' Te Aroha/ arriving at Shortland wharf next morning, after enjoying a most delightful trip, aud what may be regarded as one of the most extensive aud fertile districts in the whole colony of New Zealand yet to be opened up to British enterprise and colonisation, B,S.