The Wonders of Te Puia.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue I, 5 July 1902, Page 36

The Wonders of Te Puia.

THE GAS COUNTRY OF THE EAST COAST. Every visitor to Rotorua is familiar with the boiling springs which the * Maoris utilise for their cooking operations. ami we are all more or less accustomed to these phenomena of which we have heard and seen so much. A much rarer wonder in this country, and one much less known, is to be fount! at the Te Puia hot springs, which lie about four miles distant from Waipiro Bay, and about seven miles from Tokomaru Bay. There, in addition to beholding the not uncommon sight of boiling water issuing from the bowels of the earth, one can evoke jets of gas from the soil by the simple process of poking a hole with a stick. On withdrawing the stick and applying a match to the

aperture you have at your service a tine jet of gas. over which you can boil your billy as quickly as you do at home with your gas ring, it has been suit! of the fertile East Coast land that you have but to tickle the soil amt it smiles with a harvest. At Te Puia you have but to scratch it a little harder and it yields you fire. A favourite amusement of visitors to this strange place is to scratch their name in the soil with a stick and apply a match, when they have the rare satisfaction of seeing their signatures traced in letters of flame. In one of the pictures on this page a lady may be seen performing this little triek. Unfortunately an idea of the wonderful effect is not obtainable by a photograph, for the flame does not show in the flay light. Indeed, fo> the experiment to be entirely successful it should be performed in the darkness. In the bright light of day the flame often does not show at all, and it is very strange to see a billy hanging midway in the air attached to a stick and boiling furiously if you do not happen to know of the presence of the invisible flame. Still stranger ami fraught with no little <lan» r er 11 is to sit down suddenly on

a burning patch, as has been done. Ihe most of the hot springs issue from the roeks, clearly shown in our picture, and three of the largest gas jets are to be found on the very top of one of the pinnacles. So far the gas has only been utilised to light the Gordon bathhouse, a small building erected in the vicinity, through which 1500 gallons of hot water flows every hour, the temperature being regulated by the bather to suit his taste. But there is no saying to wha’j developments tne presence of this reservoir of gas may lead, in the near future the place is bound to be a health resort—we understand that the Government are arranging for the better accommodation of visitors to Te Puia—but it is not improbable that the wonderful resources of the place will be turned to commercial advantage. In America the gas from similar reservoirs is conducted miles in pipes, and affords the cheapest of all illuminants. There is also to be considered the chance of petroleum deposits in the neighbourhood, a source of riches frequently associated with these gas phenomena. The day may come when the lonely hills behind Waipiro will present the same appearance as the West Virginia oil fields in the picture on the following page.