Stewart. — Address. 17 



the accumulation of shingle by conveying it beyond the 

 harbour and leaving it free to resume its travel along the 

 coast. 



I think it unquestionable that before very long a large 

 amount of power will be generated at our coalfields by the use 

 of slack coal, nearly all of which goes now to waste. Either 

 by the use of steam, or by producer gas, electrical energy 

 could be generated and sent with economy certainly to a 

 distance of about a hundred miles. 



Our thermal springs form, I believe, an asset in the capital 

 account of the Auckland Provincial District the value of which 

 it is difficult to estimate, and I am sure this is even now 

 not sufficiently recognised. Looked at from the lowest point 

 of view, the amount of hard cash brought into the country 

 year by year by foreign tourists must amount to a very large 

 sum, so large that it would take an immense area of the finest 

 agricultural lands to produce profits equal to it. I speak in 

 general terms, because I have no data on which to found 

 estimates of tourist expenditure. But, taken on a social and 

 humane basis, the value of the several thermal centres, 

 although more generally recognised, can never be stated in 

 money. It is very satisfactory to observe that the Govern- 

 ment seems at last to be fully alive to the importance of 

 fostering the traffic ; but very much yet remains to be done in 

 this direction. One essential line of action has never been 

 attempted — I allude to the compilation of an authoritative 

 list of all that can be procured of the very remarkable cures 

 effected during, say, the last twenty years. There is yet time 

 for this ; and, now that the tourist traffic has become a branch 

 ■of a special department of administration, we may hope that it 

 will not be lost sight of. It is now over twenty-three years 

 since I first knew Rotorua, and ever since I have had excep- 

 tional opportunities of observation, and have known of many 

 cures of a most startling character. Many of these, no doubt, 

 are on record at the Sanatorium, but numbers of others — 

 indeed, the great majority — were never treated there. The 

 principal cases are, no doubt, well remembered by residents 

 and business people, and a systematic inquiry might easily 

 furnish authentic material, which, compiled and issued under 

 official authority, would carry weight wherever published, 

 which should be the world over. 



I have thus endeavoured to enlist your interest in a few 

 subjects of economic importance, and if I have been successful 

 in respect to even one of them in any degree 1 shall feel more 

 than repaid for the effort. 



