The Story of the Priest's Bath.

The deliciously soft and soothing thermal waters of the Priest's Bath at the Rotorua Spa are famed in many countries besides New Zealand. Thousands of people have found relief and healing in the warm baths fed by the great spring in the Sanatorium gardens. But the why and wherefore of the name has puzzled everyone. Who was the priest, and what was the story of the spring? “Aua!” as the Maori says— “don't know.” That is the usual reply you will get at Rotorua.

The origin of the name dates back seventy years, long before there was a State township at Rotorua. Hot-Spring-Land was then a purely Maori region, and thickets of manuka covered most of the present beautiful park land on the shore of the lake. At that period, about 1865, there was a certain Father Mahoney living at Tauranga, the priest of that pakeha-Maori parish. He suffered severely from rheumatism, and as he had heard from the Maoris that there was a marvellous healing hot-spring at Rotorua he decided to travel to the Lake country and try the mineral waters for his complaint. As soon as he was able to walk, he set out on foot.