Rotorua, New Zealand, Saturday morning, August 6/98, Brent’s Hotel.
It’s a very wet morning & a poor prospect of carrying out our programme, however, after breakfast we will make an effort to see some of the sights.
Well, we got an opportunity during the early forenoon, & we, Mr. Cobb & Mr. Bain, set off to visit the neighboring settlement of “Ohinemutu” where Maiories [sic] live in native style, saw them bathing in the hot springs, cooking their food in the natural hot pools, boiling water, many bathing. These baths, being natural excavations & the water so delightfully warm, they are frequently, every day, bathing, children & young boys & girls all in common. We got 8 of them, only 1 boy amongst them, to get into one of the baths & grope for silver which we threw in & they always got it. After we had done, an old tatooed [sic] Maori came to bath[e]. In he popped beside the others, sat down up to the neck, pipe in mouth, & there he sat, the very picture of contentment. Women, too, bath freely & often, disregarding onlookers, but they & the older girls have a very commendable way of observing decency before strangers, both in going & out coming, & we afterwards saw several going to & from baths (all are open, & as so many big holes here & there, and of various qualities & temperatures) some with towels & all decently dressed. It is midwinter now & they all but live in these baths, & it is pleasing to see what healthy people they are, robust & bright eyed, even the very oldest of them. Some of the baths are seething, boiling mud, bubbling as if angry & it’s a real curiosity to see them all cooking their food. We got several to let us see into the pans, & believe me, the contents were inviting. Some very big pans filled with as fine potatoes as I ever saw, meat in others – stew – soup, onions &c. &c. Kettles boiling & tea in pans also. They make a skeleton box that is without bottom, oblong, & set it over a boiling well, put the pans into it, potatoes chiefly, into a flax bag, like a fish bag, & some in nets, all [6:8] the potatoes ready peeled. Then they cover over the top with bagging to keep the steam in, & all are soon cooked, the water being over boiling temperature. This goes on all day through as they have no fires in their “Whare”, i.e. Fare or house, & they are constantly moving from cookery to house, very convenient isn’t it? We here saw some Maories moving a house & had 4 horses drawing it. They can choose their own position. Maybe there was a hot hole broke out under the last site.[1] You’ve to be wary where you walk as the crust is very thin in most places & by forcing a stick into the ground, up comes steam through the hole. I’ve seen it done more than once. At this settlement are 6 Maori gods, stone statues on the edge of a small promintory [sic] where on once stood their place of worship. There is now a C. of England on it, small wooden churchy building, very neat. Most of the Maories are now Christians & true to the faith. As I told you, but for their colour & phyzionomy [sic], they might be taken for highly civilised peoples.
We entered their settlement or native meeting house where they meet to discuss common interests and tribal affairs, a rude enough structure, carved front, figures & scroll & same within, earth floor, a raised dais & on the dais some chairs. On a substantial pedestal, a noble bust of “Her Majesty”, white & gold, with the scepter in her hand. This will have been sent from England. It is a fine piece of work & they are very proud of it, & recognize H. Majesty as their queen. This house they call “Kororo House”.[2] Near this is an ancient relic, like a huge May Pole, but of stone & all carved with figures & inlaid. This is where the “Hauhaus”[3], fanatical natives, danced. At this settlement is a very fine hotel, the Lake Hotel, really a first class house & well appointed. Mr. Cobb knows it well, & took us through it, & the manager was exceeding kind & [6:9] desirous we should see everything. During their summer they are crowded, balconies all around, & from the upper ones the views over the lake & native settlement are very beautiful. Of course, these hot springs are the attraction & hotels have private baths with their grounds. Here also at Ohinemutu we were passing a better looking “Whare”, & we asked the wife to permit us to see in, & we were surprised at the comfort presented, beautiful & clean, 2 beds, spottlessly [sic] clean, & white counter panes on each, beautiful photographs on a table & the walls hung round with good pictures: some of their ancestors, tatooed [sic]. The wife was very modest at first & said the house was not in order,[4] but she yielded as it was explained I was a visitor from England & was anxious to see a Maorie’s house. We saw this was a superior woman & home. Well, strange to say, she was the wife of one of the Maori footballers who visited England & played the Rovers at Hartlepool. I remember being anxious to see these Maories & went to the match, the first I had seen, & I was very pleased with the way both teams acquitted themselves, & the Maories were well received. The husband, Mr. Warbrick, soon came in, a fine noble well-formed man, very highly educated & conversed like a university man. He was educated in Au[c]kland. He is a half-cast[e]. His father was a Lancashire man & when this Mr. Alfred Warbrick was in England, his cousins & relations received him with much affection, & he & his fellows were very much impressed with the reception they got in England. I told him I was present at that match & how pleased I was with their performance. He remembered Hartlepool well, showed me their engagement card, which he treasures. H’pool was visited on 14 November, 1888. [6:10] He was delighted I had met him, the only one from Hartlepool, but he has met many of the English footballers against whom they played & who has [sic] visited N. Zealand. He has many very pleasant incidents which he records during their travels in England, & as he said, he was blessed with a very clear memory & can recall nearly every match they played & the opposing team to[o]. He let us see his latest arrival, a fine boy very snugly laid in its bed. We were invited into his sanctum, which he calls his office, & I got his autograph to a little note I there & then made, & told him I would shew it to the captain of the Rovers, who would be pleased. He is one of the tribe of the Whakarewarewa & is now both a guide & a contractor & bridge builder. We were all much delighted at having come across each other, & spent half an hour very profitably & interesting. In the village they have the Salvation Army, Presbyterian, & C. of England library & reading room, & some fairly good shops. The Maories live well & spend freely. They make much money during the tourist season & know how to ask for money. The women smoke, & the girls & boys ask for cigarettes. The schools teach English & in years to come these Maories will make good citizens & loyal people. We next visited the sanatorium in this little township of Rotorua, & very close – just across the road – to Brents Hotel, in the pretty grounds, are hot springs & baths, & a very fine geyser of boiling mineral water, 2 steam holes along side the geyser & the steam roars off like a locomotive when the valve is eased & blows off. I sketched it as it was too dull to photo. During the forenoon it rained but not heavily. We, however, suffered nothing but during the afternoon it rained most unmercifully, but we were not to be daunted, so after lunch we set off in a buggy for the celebrated village of Whakarewarewa [6:11][5] 2 miles distant. Oh! What wonderful sights are here, beyond description, a perfect wonderland. One huge area of boiling, surging, bub[b]ling cauldrons, mud pools, sulphur pools, & other mineral pools, all issuing volumes of steam & here is where the geysers are. One was playing beautifully, near which we could not stand excepting on the windward side, & everywhere around us were gurgling chasms. We could hear the boiling & bub[b]ling on every hand, & one of the large pools is called the Torpedo, & every minute shot off like a pistol. We had to walk very carefully, as at any unguarded moment we might step on a crust & sink into boiling water, hence the necessity for a guide, of which there are many, the foremost of which is the well, & worldwide, known Sophia,[6] who interested us much, & who figures in the sad incident connected with Mr. Bainbridge’s death, of whom we spoke & got some personal reminiscences from her. Oh, how Mr. Cobb & I enjoyed it. Mr. Bain did not accompany us. We could not make up our minds to leave the scene, tho’ the rain came down in torrent. Yet we heeded it not. I do wish I could describe this afternoon’s experience. I’ve got some descriptive books which will better do justice than I can. We got back to the hotel at 5 o’clock & went & had nearly an hour in “Madam Rachel”, out of which we all but declared we would not come, it was so [6:12] very delightful. We did, however, get out, tho’ really regretfully, & after a cold shower, dressed & returned to hotel & had dinner. We each, again & again, reverted to the deliciousness of the bath & felt as if we had prevented all possibility of cold having seized us during the wet afternoon. Music, cards &c., were soon indulged in & a happy night was spent. I had this day’s journal to write up & it took me a long while, but I always feel & breath[e] more freely after committing to paper the day’s incidents.
[1] Inserted on facing page: “I have since writing & stating my conjecture, been told that instances innumerable are on record of boiling holes having broken out beneath houses & in some cases houses collapsed before they could be recovered”.
[2] Inserted on facing page: “The meeting house is called Kororo or Tama-te-Kapua. See photograph.”
[3] In the period of adjustment, during which their own religious beliefs were being abandoned and some Christian ones were being accepted, the Maori people created cults which provided an outlet for repressed fears and tensions. The best known of these was Hauhauism. This movement marked one of the first efforts of any Polynesian peoples to incorporate elements of Biblical teaching into their own traditional religious beliefs. The act of worship centre d on the Niu pole on the village marae. Rope streamers descended from the pole on the top of which was a flag. After assembling in military order, the followers marched clockwise round the pole to the accompaniment of chants of mixed nautical, military, and Biblical origin.
[4] Inserted on facing page: “(Or ‘the house is upside down’).”
[5] Inserted on facing page: “See photographs”.
[6] Sophia Hinerangi was the principal tourist guide of the Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana before the eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886, and later guided at Whakarewarewa.