A Tourist Land.

New Zealand is already recognised as a land for tourists, and annually an increasing number of people visit the Switzerland of the South. Many of these come from the continent of Australia to avoid the extreme heat of the summer months, but the majority are from this country. The Colony has, no doubt, a most valuable property in her glorious climate and scenery, and when it is borne in mind what a source of wealth to parts of Europe is the tourist traffic, we can justly regard New Zealand's scenic grandeur as one of her best assets. In order to see the chief places of interest in New Zealand, the tourist from this country should allow for six months' absence. Of this, three months are spent at sea, and three months are devoted to travelling throughout the Colony. The trip is not an expensive one, as a return ticket by any of the many first-class lines of steamers is only £100, which includes living for three months; and hotel charges and travelling expenses in New Zealand are certainly no more, and probably rather less, than in other countries. The best time to select is to leave here in September or October, returning in March or April, thus avoiding the English winter. The fear of the sea journey probably deters a few, but proves to most not the least enjoyable part of the holiday, while page 31 for the man or woman with over-wrought brain or delicate health, the enforced rest and fresh sea breezes give a new lease of life.

A man would indeed be composed of queer material if he did not find plenty to interest him in New Zealand for three months. There is a grandeur and variety of scenery possessed by no other country; there is the progress and development of one of the Empire's most important Colonies to study; there is a native race remarkable for its physique and intelligence; there is the social life of a new generation of Englishmen, and there is a clear, bright, and bracing climate in which to see it all.

Some people imagine that now the marvellous pink and white terraces have been destroyed by the terrible eruption of 1886 there is nothing left to see in New Zealand; but although the Colony has suffered an irreparable loss in the destruction of this gorgeous creation of nature, the wonderland of the North Island still remains. There is still left more than enough to make this part of New Zealand one of the most interesting, if not the most beautiful, to visit, and the traces of the dreadful upheaval that annihilated the terraces alone form one of the most interesting sights of its kind to be seen anywhere.

There are still to be seen in this district the many coloured lakes, blue, green, and yellow, active volcanoes, geysers of steam, mud, and water, boiling springs, seething mud caldrons, cliffs and terraces of every tint, and other sights which can only be equalled in Iceland or Yellowstone Park in America. The thermal springs are attaining a well-earned celebrity for their curative properties, and bid fair to rival the German Spas, and baths of the Pyrenees. I here give some extracts descriptive of the therapeutic properties of these baths from a paper on the subject written by Dr. Ginders, M.D., the Medical Superintendent at Rotorua. If further information is sought on the subject, there is a more detailed account given in a chapter of a recent book on New Zealand, written by John Murray Moore, M.D., M.E.C.S., published by Messrs. Sampson Low, of London.

The thermal-springs district of New Zealand comprises an area of upwards of 600,000 acres, or close on 1,000 square miles. The length of the district is some fifty miles, with an average breadth of twenty miles. Its altitude averages from 1,000 ft. to 2,000 ft. above sea-level. The general physical features of this region embrace extensive pumice-plains, intersected in various directions by high ranges of igneous formation, which are relieved here and there by enormous trachytic cones. Extensive forests of extraordinary luxuriance and beauty clothe the mountains page 32 and border the extensive plateaux, while hot lakes, boiling geysers, and thermal springs are dotted far and wide over the country. The thermal-springs district, however, as defined on the maps, by no means embraces the whole volcanic and hydrothermal activity of the island. Although the volcanic slopes of Ruapehu and Tongariro bound this region on the south, hot springs are found here and there for fully 250 miles beyond its western boundary—in fact, as far north as the Bay of Islands. Within the district it is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of hot springs exist, to say nothing of mud-volcanoes, solfataras, and fumeroles. These springs are of the most varied chemical character, and every degree of temperature from 60° to 212°. Not a twentieth part of them have as yet been submitted to analysis. Those which have been examined in the laboratory of the Geological Survey Department in Wellington are divided by Sir James Hector into five classes: (1) Saline, containing chiefly chloride of sodium; (2) alkaline, containing carbonates and bicarbonates of soda and potash; (3) alkalinc-siliccous, containing much silicic acid, but changing rapidly on exposure to the atmosphere, and becoming alkaline; (4) hepatic or sulphurous, characterised by the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurous acid; and (5) acidic, waters, containing an excess of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, or both. In addition to these we have saline waters, containing iodine, cold acidulous chalybeates, and saline acidulous chalybeates. These, however, are in situations at present inaccessible to the invalid, or, if not out of reach, at least destitute of the conveniences and comforts essential to the sick, but no doubt destined in the near future to attain a high medical reputation.

The Government of New Zealand has very wisely chosen the southern shore of Lake Rotorua as the basis of operations for opening up this wonderful district. Here are grouped together numerous examples of the five classes of springs I have enumerated, and here the Government have fixed their first sanatorium and bathing establishment, to which it is desired specially to direct attention. The sanatorium reserve at Rotcrua comprises an area of some 50 acres, bounded on the north and east by the lake, and on the west and south by the Township of Rotorua. Ten years ago this was a howling wilderness, covered with tea-tree scrub, and diversified only by clouds of steam rising from the various hot springs. Now this area of desolation is completely transformed. Walks and drives planted with evergreen trees traverse it from end to end, fountains and flower-gardens delight the eye, and commodious buildings for the accommodation and convenience of invalids are springing up on every side. The principal of these are the Sanatorium hospital, the medical residence, the Priest's pavilion, the Rachael pavilion, the Blue swimming-bath (to which is attached the sulphur-vapour bath and the electrical department), and Brent's boarding-house. The hospital is designed to accommodate twenty-one patients—twelve males and nine females. The Government tariff has not yet been decided on, but it is not likely to exceed £1 or £1 5s. per head per week. A patient will be allowed to page 33 remain three months, but if at the expiration of that time the medical officer is of opinion that a longer period is desirable a second three months will be granted; but in all cases six months will be the extreme limit.

We have no spring in the district that has obtained a higher reputation, or proved itself more generally useful, than that known as the Priest's Bath. The character of the water is sulphurous, aluminous, and strongly acid. Its temperature varies from 98° to 106°. This variation is due to the rise and fall of the lake and the direction of the wind. When the lake is high and the wind blowing in the direction of the baths the conditions are favourable to a high temperature, and vice versâ, the cold water of the lake affording a more efficient barrier to the escape of heat than the open pumice-grazel of which the shore is composed. The solid constituents of the water amount to 96 grains per gallon, consisting of sulphates and silica. Of these the sulphates of alumina and soda are the most abundant; but the most important constituents are—free sulphuric acid, 22 gr., and free hydrochloric acid, 3 gr. per gallon. A patient emerging from this bath looks like a boiled lobster, and I regard this determination of blood to the skin as a most important therapeutic factor: the vascular and nervous apparatus of the skin are powerfully stimulated by it, and internal congestions relieved. Our alkaline waters, on the other hand, which contain the chlorides and silicates of the alkalies, have a soothing and emollient effect on the skin, and are of great value in eczema and other cutaneous ailments. The water of the Priest's Spring is brilliantly clear when undisturbed, and pale-green in colour. A faint odour of sulphuretted-hydrogen pervades the vicinity, which gas, together with sulphurous acid, is copiously evolved. Since the eruption of Tarawera this offensive odour has been much modified, owing, I believe, to an increased evolution of sulphurous-acid gas at that time. Fortunately for the nasal organs and general comfort of bathers, these gases effect a mutual decomposition. Wherever steam charged with these gases is able to penetrate, sulphur is deposited. This is the origin of all the sulphur in the district. It permeates readily the siliceous-sinter rock, forming beautiful needle-like crystals of sulphur in its interspaces. Sulphur being thus constantly transformed from the gaseous to the solid state in the water of this spring, it is very possible that, coming into contact with the skin in this nascent and impalpable form, its therapeutic power may be considerably enhanced: there can be no doubt about its absorption, for our patients tell us that their underclothing is redolent of sulphur for weeks after returning home. The Priest's bathing-pavilion is a building 74 ft. long by 44 ft. wide, having a superficial area of 3,256 square feet. It is divided into male and female departments. Each department comprises two public piscinœ, 16 ft. by 12 ft., with two private baths for special cases, lounging-rooms, and comfortable dressing-rooms. Each bath is provided with a cold fresh-water shower, and douches either hot or tepid, thus materially enhancing the hydropathic efficiency of this remarkable water.

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Adjoining this structure is the Rachel Bathing-pavilion. Here we have a water diametrically opposite in character to the last described—an alkaline siliceous water, having a temperature at its source of 180°. This source is a caldron of enormous depth, situated some 200 yards from the bathing-pavilion, and yielding 50,000 gallons daily. We have a simple system of cooling by which the water may be used at any desired temperature. Here also is a separate department for each sex, each containing a public piscina 16 ft. square, four private baths, a lounging or waiting-room kept at a constant temperature of 70° by hot-water pipes, and dressing-rooms. The solid constituents of this water amount to 116 gr. per gallon, and consist of the chlorides of sodium and potassium, sulphate and carbonate of soda, silicates of soda, lime, and magnesia, oxides of iron and aluminium, and silica. Its reaction is alkaline, and it contains a small amount of sulphuretted hydrogen. The delicious sense of bien-être produced by bathing in this water, with the soft satiny feeling it communicates to the skin, must be felt to be appreciated. It is useful in all forms of skin-disease—indeed, in eczema it may be considered specific if continued long enough in conjunction with a suitable regimen. I frequently recommend the internal use of this water. Its taste is not unpleasant, and its action is midly antilithic. Waters containing silicates are said to be useful in the uric-acid diathesis, and I certainly have found it suit gouty patients admirably.

The Blue Bath is a warm swimming-bath 62 ft. long by 27 ft. wide. It is built of stone and concrete, with a smooth surface of Portland cement. Its depth is from 4 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. It contains about 30,000 gallons of water, maintained at a temperature of 98°. This is the popular pleasure-bath of the Sanatorium, in which our rheumatic invalids are able to take exercise without undue fatigue. It was completed in 1885, and opened by Mr. George Augustus Sala. During the excavation necessary for its formation the workmen struck upon a remarkable sulphur-cavern, its roof and sides thickly coated with brilliant acicular crystals of sulphur, and at its base a hot spring yielding steam so strongly impregnated with sulphur-gases as to be quite irrespirable. This we have conducted to the surface, and employ as a sulphur-vapour bath, diluting it, as occasion requires, with steam of a milder character. In sciatica and all forms of rheumatism this is one of our most popular and efficacious remedies. In this building we have our electrical room, supplied with faradic and constant-current batteries, and a galvanic bath. No hospital at the present day is without its electrical apparatus, yet few hospital men, and still fewer busy general practitioners, have time to devote to the study it necessitates. It appears destined to become a speciality; and certainly there could be no wider field for its exercise than a Sanatorium like that of Rotorua, where neurotic, rheumatic, and paralytic patients congregate, and where constant bathing modifies so favourably the normal resistance of the skin to the electrical current.

Cases of paraplegia in which the muscles are extensively atrophied, and page 35 there is absolutely no response to either galvanism or faradism, are usually hopeless. In hemiplegia, on the other hand, presumably from cerebral embolism or from small hemorrhages, as, for example, from rupture of the miliary aneurisms of Charcot, we have had some excellent results.¹

Rheumatism and skin-diseases form fully 75 per cent, of the cases we are called upon to treat, and these usually in a very chronic form. In rheumatism and rheumatic gout we have much success, especially where arthritic degeneration is not too pronounced. Hot acidic sulphur-baths at a temperature not exceeding 104°, or sulphur-vapour up to 115°, taken twice daily for a carefully-regulated time, according to individual tolerance—which we find to vary greatly—forms our routine treatment. These waters redden the skin, and cause some tingling sensation for an hour or two. Occasionally some irritation of the skin occurs, which is readily allayed by a few warm alkaline showers or douches. In those numerous and well-known cases of chronic hip-rheumatism, initiated frequently by injury, we find nothing so efficacious as the hot douche. The beneficial result is due partly to the quality of the water, and largely to its mechanical action: fortunately, our arrangements are so complete that we are able to vary the temperature and percussive power of the douche at will. We are able to quote several cases of cure even where a considerable amount of fibrous anchylosis has existed. If the rheumatic patient progresses favourably under the bath-treatment alone, neither medicines nor electricity are employed, but if after a few weeks his progress is not satisfactory, we find galvano-faradism a valuable adjunct. Usually thirty cells are put into circuit with a faradic machine, and the double current applied in the labile manner to the parts affected for fifteen minutes daily. We find this answer better than either current alone. In cases of muscular atrophy faradism is had recourse to from the commencement.²

Perhaps there is no class of diseases in which we meet with more uniform success than those affecting the skin. The solid and gaseous constituents of the waters are no doubt important, but I have more confidence in the influence of change and all that it implies in its effect on both mind and body, combined with the prolonged maceration of the cuticle, and the constant exposure of the skin to air and light which frequent bathing entails. General eczema, which may have resisted every form of treatment for years, is generally cured in a period varying from six to thirteen weeks if the patient is willing to submit himself to rigorous medical discipline. The same may be said of psoriasis—at least, as far as its disappearance for a longer or shorter period is concerned. It is rare, indeed, to see psoriasis completly eradicated. For ringworm and the impetiginous eczema of children the water of the Priest's spring is specific. In sycosis epilation is necessary, after which our alkaline waters complete the cure. Neuralgias, as a rule, do remarkably well. Patients suffering from sciatica are a numerous class with us, most of them presenting a very chronic page 36 history. When the disease is not distinctly associated with the gouty or rheumatic diathesis, is not of long standing, and has been caused by exposure to cold, it is very quickly cured. A few baths relieve the pain, and there is rarely any stiffness or weakness remaining. Chronic cases are not so easily dealt with—they require great patience and perseverance on the part of both physician and patient. Our routine treatment consists of hot baths, sulphur-vapour, the douche and galvanism. After six or eight weeks it frequently happens that nothing remains to remind the patient of his old enemy beyond some slight weakness or soreness of the limb, and I usually advise him to try a week's sea-bathing on his way home. In order to accomplish this he should arrive in Rotorua not earlier than September or later than February. We have had some good results in the treatment of cervico-brachial neuralgia. Some time ago a lady who had long suffered from neuralgia of the circumflex nerve came to Rotorua for treatment. She carried her arm in a sling, and dreaded the slightest movement. In spite of her suffering she had attained the terrific weight of 17 st. After two weeks' bathing, and the application of a very mild galvanic battery, she was able to use her arm, and in a month was completely cured.

To enumerate every ailment in which our thermal springs have proved useful would prolong this paper indefinitely. Suffice it to say that in many cases their healing-power has been discovered accidentally. Many ladies bathing for rheumatism have found themselves cured of chronic metritis and leucorrhœa, and as a result of such cures have proved fruitful after years of sterility. Congestion of the liver, biliary catarrh with jaundice and haemorrhoids, have been cured by the acid sulphur waters, which also prove useful as a topical application in ozæna and ulcerated throat. This class of water also tends to reduce plethora and corpulency without prostration, ensures healthy action of the skin, and relieves torpor of the bowels.

The popularity of Rotorua as a health resort is steadily increasing, and all that is wanting to secure its permanent success is through railway-communication with Auckland. With regard to the hotel and boarding-house accommodation provided for invalids and tourists, we have at a distance of one mile from the Sanatorium, three hotels, each possessing valuable thermal springs, with comfortable bath-houses, the use of which is free to visitors. The tariff varies from 8s. to 10s. per day, but for visitors who may wish to remain several weeks a lower charge may be arranged for. At present we have only one boarding-house, in close proximity to the Government baths; it is capable of accommodating about twenty visitors. The medical superintendent receives four resident patients in his house. Where privacy and home comfort, combined with constant medical supervision, are to be desired, this provision will be appreciated.

I have been led to make these rather lengthy extracts because I feel that the thermal springs of the Colony are so little known. page 37 When I turn to New Zealand as a land of beauty I confess my utter inability to describe the magnificent mountain, lake, river, and forest scenery of the Colony, and I have therefore made a selection of views which will presently be shown to you. The slides are rather old, and not of the best, but I am sure they will give you a better idea of the beauties of New Zealand than any feeble word-pictures of my own. There is, I believe, no country which contains such a variety of scenery as does New Zealand. If you have visited Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, the Tyrol, and Italy, and seen the best features of those beautiful countries—fiords, snow-peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, gorges, harbours, rivers, forests, ferns—you have seen some of Nature's grandest and fairest scenes; but if you go to New Zealand you will be bound to admit that she can show you wonders and beauties quite as grand and fair. A visitor should not fail to see the sounds or fiords of the South Island, the southern lakes, Mount Cook and its glaciers, the Otira gorge, the Buller and Wanganui rivers, and the northern lakes. In visiting these places he will be compelled to see many of the harbours, of which Auckland is the most beautiful, so beautiful that it takes a high place in the beautiful harbours of the world. I have seen Rio Janeiro, Naples, and Sydney, and I think, in its way, Auckland is more beautiful than either. "See Naples and die !" is a well-known saying; but if any of you are thinking of going to Naples for that purpose, I would suggest that you go and see Auckland first. Every year the accommodation for tourists improves, and one may now travel along the beaten tracks very comfortably. The enterprising firm of Messrs. Cook & Son have established agencies throughout the whole Colony, and spare no trouble to bring New Zealand under the favourable notice of the travelling public, and to attend to their comfort there. The people of the Colony no doubt under-estimate the scenic grandeur of their country. The Government, I am happy to say, are now paying more attention to the convenience of travellers by improving the communication by rail and road, and hotels worthy of the name are beginning to take the place of the old accommodation houses. The splendid hotels and good roads met with in Switzerland are no small attraction to many of her visitors, and the love of creature comfort is to many a matter of more consideration than the love of nature. These are facts which the New Zealander must not forget.