The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-19
Special Correspondence of the New Tor
 World.)

WOrl0.)
 % OTORUA, New Zealand.-It must {" be true, as has been said, that no U - one spends a week in this place of soft, soothing hot baths, charming land and water scapes, and boiling foun- tains of glittering spray, but resolves at first opportunity to return to it again. The very atmosphere is restful, conducive 10 an easy, lazy holiday.
 An eight hours railway journey from Auckland City sets the traveller down in this very home of geyserdom and straightway this uncanny but beautiful land gets it's grip on his senses.
 The wonderful thermal phenomena are by no means the only attractions. The purple ring of woody hills, the round. blue shimmering lake, with its central green islet, the overwhelming tones of brush wood and tree grove, the gay flower gar dens in the Government Park grounds, the bizarre wood carvings and decorative designs of the houses in the Maori vil- lages, the picturesque groups of lustrous- eyes tatooed brown people, the sailing and fishing and motoring excursions
 
 are, after all, the most potent in their haunting allurement for the traveller who has once seen Rotorua.
 The geysers are surrounded by land scape gardens, gay with flowers, the warm healing waters from Ruaimokos s underworld are conducted into great bath buildings that are the resort of suf- fering humanity from all quarters of the globe.
 Rotorua's waters are the Siloam of the invalid But the place attracts pleasure seekers in greater numbers than invalds. It is a famous region of travel and sport; much of the picturesque Maori life re- mains, in quaint juxaposition to the in novations of the white man, and over all the works of Maori and pakeha hangs the sulphur-steam wreath-the symbol and es- sence of a strange, romantic land. bare quarter of century ago Ro- world There were few habitations be- sides the Maori huts, and the adventur- ous invalid either bathed in the natural pools or dug hole in the steaming ground There was no railway, and long and fatiguing coach journey from the seacoast town of Tauranga had to be endured before the sufferer or the tourist reached the charming region of the wai-arlkis.
 The first step toward nationalizing these wonderful springs and developing them as spas was taken in 1881, when the | Thermal Springs districts act was passed | by the New Zealand parliament. At first the Rotorua district was attend l ed to; then followed various other groups | of hot springs, some of the most valuable of which were speedily acquired by the crown. As years went on Te Aroha and 1 Hammer Hot Springs the latter in the South Island) became the property of the | state; then the grand volcanic and therm- al Tongarro zone and the geyser val leys of whakarewarewa, watotapu and i Orakeikorako.
 | A government township was laid out on | the shores of Lake Rotorua in 1881. and town sites were promptly offered for se- l lection, in order to render available the curative property of the mineral springs. 1 European town quickly sprang up in the vicinity of the celebrated old Maori village of Ohinemutu, famous from early I days for two things-its delicious bath , ing springs and its rich wood carvings. | The inter vening period has been one of
 energetic exploitation of this marvellous { corner of New Zealand and it's rise from i the manuka desert and raupo whare
 stage to the thoroughly up-to-date town,
 with every comfort and luxury that civ ilized man can require.
 The people pay rent, and the govern
 ment manages the town, maintains the
 streets and roads. provides water electric | light and other necessities keeps up and
 extends the bathing establishments, parks
 and recreation grounds.
 ] Rotorua is just on the northern limit | of the thermal district which extends
 south for 100 miles to Mount Ruapeh,i,
 whose highest ice peak is 5000 feet above
 sea level. The intervening country is an
 amazing region of boiling springs In | invalculable number and variety, of l geysers, solfataras, fumaroles. hot vari-
 colored lakes and pools, mud volcanoes. gIeaming terraces and alkali plateaus.