But the main use of the hot springs is found in their combination of certain chemical properties,--sulphur-acid, sulphur-alkaline.

Nowhere in the world, probably, are found healing waters at once so powerful and so various in their uses.

Generations ago the Maori tribes knew something of their effects.

Now invalids come from far and near in hundreds and thousands, and when the distractions and appliances of the sanitary stations equal those of the European spas they will come in tens of thousands, for the plateau is not only a health-resort but a wonderland.

Its geysers rank with those of Iceland and the Yellowstone.