1877 - Constance Gordon Cumming
The Boiling Springs of Rotorua
Ohinemutu is a native settlement on the shores of Lake Rotorua, situated in the very midst of boiling springs of every variety. As you look down on the village you catch glimpses of the little brown huts appearing and disappearing through veils of white vapour. The whole country round seems to be steaming, and every step requires cau-tion lest you should carelessly plunge through the thin and treacherous crust of crisp baked soil, into unknown horrors that lie below. If you thrust a walking-stick into the ground, the steam immediately rises from the openiug thus made. At every few steps you come to a boiling pool, often wellnigh concealed by a fringe of rare and delicate ferns of the most exquisitely vivid green - a peculiarity shared by all the plants which flourish in this perpetual vapour-bath. In some places a greenish gelatinous or slimy vegetable substance grows in the crevices of the rock where the boiling spray constantly falls. It belongs to the family of algae, and ranks low in the scale of organisation. The marvel is, how any form of life can exist in such a temperature. It is the salamander of the vegetable kingdom.
Here, as in every other volcanic region I have visited, I am struck by the exceeding coldness of springs and streams lying close to boiling fountains, a system of hot and cold water baths which the Maoris readily adapt to use, by leading a small conduit from each to a rudely constructed tank, in which they can regulate the temperature by turning on the hot or cold stream. Some of the ordinary bathing pools, which are not thus artificially cooled, are so responsive to the influence of the north and east winds, that while these blow the temperature rises from 100° to 190°, and bathing becomes impossible till the wind changes. Very often the wind blows from the north-east every morning for weeks together, and dies away at sunset, when the water (which at noon had reached boiling-point) gradually becomes comparatively cool.
The natives consider these luxurious baths to be a certain cure for all manner of ills. And so they doubtless are; but, as each pool differs from all its neighbours in its chemical combinations, it follows that bathing here at random must be about as unsafe, though decidedly not so unpleasant, as tasting all the contents of a chemist's shop by turns. But a certain number of the pools have been so long tried by the Maoris that their beneficial results are well proven; and many sufferers, chiefly those afflicted with rheumatism, are carried up here totally helpless, and in most instances derive immense benefit from drinking and bathing in these mineral waters.
Of the many thousand hot and cold springs which bubble around us in every direction, a limited number only have as yet been analysed, but these prove that the various chemical combinations are practically without number, no two pools being alike. All the mineral waters of Europe seem to be here represented - Harrogate and Leamington, Kreutznach and Wiesbaden, and many another - so that doubtless ere long this district will become a vast sanatorium, to which sufferers from all manner of diseases will be sent to nature's own dispensary to find the healing waters suited to their need. There are mud-baths, containing sulphate of potash, soda, lime, alumina, iron, magnesia, hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, silica, and iodine. Other springs contain monosilicate of lime, of iron, manganese, chloride of potassium, of sodium, sulphate of soda and of lime, silica, phosphate of alumina, magnesia, chloride of potassium, oxide of iron, and various other chemical substances. I believe that carbonic acid has not been found; but small quantities of lithium, iodine, and bromine are present in almost every instance. In some cases iodine is found in considerable quantities, notably in those springs to which the Maoris chiefly resort for the cure of skin diseases.
All the ordinary cares of housekeeping are here greatly facilitated by nature. She provides so many cooking-pots that fires are needless - all stewing and boiling does itself to perfection. The food is either placed in a flax basket, and hung in the nearest pool, or else it is laid in a shallow hole and covered with layers of fern and earth to keep in the steam. In either case the result is excellent, and the cookery clean and simple. Laundry-work is made equally easy. Certain pools are set aside in which to boil clothes; and one of these, which is called Kairua, is the village laundry par excellence. Its waters are alkaline, and produce a cleansing lather; and they are so soft and warm that washing is merely a pleasant pastime to the laughing Maori girls. No soap is required. Mother Nature has provided all that is needful: sulphate of soda, chloride of potassium and of sodium, enter largely into her preparations for washing-day.
My good landlady has had a bitter grief connected with her laundry-pool. About two months ago her youngest child toddled down the garden and fell in, and was so terribly scalded that it died immediately. I have heard several other cases of grown-up people and horses falling into boiling caldrons, but it seems to me marvellous that such accidents do not happen daily, so vague are the little paths, and so numerous the dangers.
Gordon Cumming, Constance F.
At Home in Fiji
Vol. 2, London 1881