Stewart. — Oyi the Botorua District. 591 



Art. LYIII. — The Botorua Baihvay and District. 



By James Stewart, C.E. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 14tli September, 1891.'] 



When I was requested to contribute to the usual series of 

 lectures which it is to be hoped is now a permanent feature 

 in the annual work of the Institute, and the subject of to- 

 night was suggested (no doubt because it is one in which I have 

 been personally engrossed during the last ten years), I felt, 

 notwithstanding the interest the public is supposed to take in 

 all things pertaining to Eotorua, that it would be extremely 

 difficult to treat the matter in a popular manner, and at the 

 same time to steer clear of a tiresome repetition of things you 

 have all heard before. 



It would be out of place, to use a mild term, to attempt 

 here any description of the wonders of the Lake district, 

 which has been more or less a favourite subject with every 

 writer on the topography of New Zealand ever since the esta- 

 blishment of the colony. All that is necessary now is con- 

 fined to subjects connected with the bearings of the railway 

 on the district, and the capabilities of the district to respond 

 to the influences of rapid, cheap, and certain means of com- 

 munication. 



The tourist traffic to Eotorua had so gradual a develop- 

 ment that it is impossible to fix any date at which it may be 

 said to have commenced ; but just in proportion to the facili- 

 ties for conveyance and residence offered to the public so did 

 the public respond, and this may be taken to be certain of 

 continuance, up to a limit determined by the population inter- 

 ested, eventually, let us hope, to be, for all practical purposes, 

 unlimited by having the population of the world at large to 

 draw on, for we may easily conceive it to be soon possible 

 for the teeming millions of the Northern Hemisphere to con- 

 template a journey to Eotorua with less thought of clifficulty, 

 arrangement, and even expense than twenty years ago used 

 to confront those in New Zealand who wished to view Eotorua 

 and Eotomahana. 



Previous to 1872 accommodation for travellers at Ohine- 

 mutu was a whare owned, and the business run, by five 

 Maoi'is. The business capacity of this firm was very limited, 

 and there is a tradition that, on receipt of every item of Is. 6d., 

 they at once divided the money, each receiving 3id., and 

 tossing for the remaining odd halfpenny. European enter- 

 prise soon stepped in, and the native element gave way, so far 



