women who act as guides. One hears of Maggie, the guide, before
reaching the town, but we did not see her; she became so famous that
an Englishman married her, and she is now living unhappily in London.
But there are many others here, for the profession is easily learned;
after one trip through the geyser field, I am certain I would be
competent to act as a guide. The native woman who accompanied us
pointed out several holes where people had fallen in and lost their
lives. She says that when a man falls in a hot pool, he disappears, and
nothing is ever seen of him again, except his liver; in a few hours
after the man disappears, his liver is seen floating on the surface,
and is recovered. This is the sort of information possessed by the
guides. A native woman fell into one hot crater, and the guides say her
screaming can still be heard. I listened attentively, and the hissing
steam made a noise at times which sounded something like a woman’s
scream.... In the warm pools, boys and girls swim together, stark
naked. The entrance to the geyser field is over a bridge spanning a
roaring stream, and girls fourteen and fifteen years old jump from
this bridge into the water, if pennies are thrown as an inducement.
The jump is a high one, and I saw no boys making it. In one warm pool
where naked boys and girls were in bathing we saw a little white girl,
but the guide did not know her, and could not explain how she came
there.... Every visitor to New Zealand soon remarks that the women
do not care much about their feet or figures. Still, their waists and
feet do not seem larger than they should be; perhaps women in other
parts of the world unnaturally pinch themselves.... Tourists do all
sorts of queer things. One woman who sits at our table carries her own
tea and teapot, and another carries her own bread.... A rumor came
to the hotel today that the big geysers were spouting, and there was
hurrying among the guests, but the rumor proved only partly true; the
spouting lasted only a few minutes, and the guests of the Grand did not
see it. Last Wednesday, when we were on the lake trip, the big geysers
spouted nine hours, breaking all records. A bulletin board is displayed
in the hotel office, and this is used to keep the guests informed as
to the doings of the geysers.... There seems to be no doubt that we
look funny. In walking about, we hear people say to each other, as we
pass, “They are Americans.” They say it softly, and do not think we
hear it, for the people here are very polite; but we do hear it, and
we remark that people stare at us when they think we are not looking.
We undoubtedly look odd to them. I wonder if our talk sounds as funny
to them as theirs sounds to us?... Wages are not as high here as in
the United States, but we often hear the statement made that this is
more than compensated for by the lower cost of living. We went into
a grocery store today, and inquired prices. Potatoes sell at three
cents a pound; cabbage, eight cents a head; green peas, thirty-two
cents a peck; sugar, six cents a pound; flour, $3 per hundred pounds;
bread, eight cents a loaf; crackers, twelve cents a pound; tomatoes and
peaches, twenty-four cents per two-pound can; eggs, forty-two cents
per dozen; butter, twenty-eight cents a pound. An inferior watermelon
costs seventy-five cents; round steak, eighteen cents a pound; leg of
mutton, twelve cents; loin of mutton, ten. But prices are higher here
than in the average New Zealand town, as not much is produced in this
vicinity. The grocer said freight rates were extortionate, although
the railroad is owned by the government. The apples displayed were
from California, but I did not know the variety, although the grocer
asked me the question.... You frequently see here tin cans labeled
“Pratt’s benzine;” but if you examine the label closely, you note that
it is supplied by the Standard Oil Co., of New York.... Although
lake trout are caught in great quantities here, it is against the law
to sell them. We saw a man come in today with as many rainbow trout
as he and two boys could carry. Lake trout are not particularly good
fish. Brook trout are possibly the best fish in the world, but the
lake trout are larger, and coarser; we have seen them here weighing
twenty-two pounds, but the average is nearer three pounds. In one
pool at Rotorua, thousands of trout may be seen swimming around, and
children feed them with bread crumbs.... Some of the grazing land in
New Zealand, after it has been cleared, manured, and seeded to grass,
becomes very valuable. It is worth as high as $400 an acre. Choice land
is worth an equal amount in Australia, but in both Australia and New
Zealand there is plenty of land that may be had for almost nothing;
but it is worth no more than is charged for it.... It is generally
believed that the original New Zealanders, the original Hawaiians, and
the people living in the islands between, came from the same general
stock. The language was evidently the same at one time, and has been
corrupted into dialects. The native New Zealanders are exactly like
our American Indians, in appearance; perhaps they are all of the same
original stock. The people of Samoa look like the Hawaiians, the
Mexicans and the Indians; and the people of the South Sea islands
were such adventurous navigators that the Samoan group is also known
as the Navigator Islands, and probably many centuries ago the islands
extended much nearer to the mainland of North America than at present.
The surface of the earth is constantly changing; where lofty mountain
ranges once existed, are now vast level plains; our present tropics
were once in the frigid zone, and many islands that once existed
have disappeared. No doubt the original inhabitants of North America
found their way there from the westward, by means which we cannot
now clearly understand.... New Zealand was originally a very poor
country; it had almost no animals, and its vegetation was scanty. All
the sheep, cattle, horses, hogs, fowls, deer, etc., were brought here;
when Captain Cook was killed in the Hawaiian islands, by natives, he
had been distributing live-stock in the islands of the South Seas, to
benefit the inhabitants. Trout are now plentiful in the clear and rapid
streams of New Zealand, but they were brought here. Before the American
Revolution there were plenty of hogs in Australia, New Zealand, and the
South Sea islands. The natives traded hogs to the sailors for knives,
nails, hatchets, etc., and these hogs had been introduced by white men,
at great expense and trouble. The white man has always been trying to
help his more backward dark-skinned brother.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 18.—Rotorua, with all its charms, becomes very
tiresome after a few days. A second visit to the geyser fields is like
seeing a play a second time, and we are impatient to move on. The first
time you see fifteen-year-old girls, scantily dressed, diving for
pennies, it is a startling sight, but in a little while you do not care
for it. When two Maori women meet, they rub their foreheads together.
That ceremony interested me for a time, but it does not now, and we
leave here tomorrow.... When we first arrived, the manager said:
“I will seat you in the dining-room with an American.” The man was
exactly like an American, but he actually came from Vancouver, B. C.
Canadians are more like Americans than any other people.... I have
not seen such a thing as door or window screens in New Zealand. This is
the middle of summer, and flies are numerous, but no attempt is made
to keep them out. I dislike to pass a meat market, because I always
encounter great swarms of flies. They have ice here, but do not use it
much.... We visited a moving-picture theatre this afternoon, and it
was exactly like the moving-picture shows at home; ridiculous plays
of the melodrama order, made in America, and an orchestra consisting
of a piano-player who plays with tremendous force. As we came away
from the moving-picture show we passed the smallest hotel in town,
and of course it was known as “The Palace.”... I have never seen such
magnificent sweet pea blooms as I have seen here, and they are now
at their best. Roses also seem to do particularly well here, and we
visited a rose garden today which would have done credit to California.
There was an acre or more of roses, and all the varieties seemed to
be different. The garden is owned by the government, which does all
sorts of things over here, and is cared for by convicts.... We have
had no mail from home in five weeks. The people at the American naval
station at Pago Pago, Samoa, receive mail only once a month, and say
they do not mind it; that mail every day is a daily worry, whereas if
you receive mail but once a month your worries are greatly reduced.
You are always expecting important mail which never arrives, and a
daily mail, they say, is really a nuisance.... One of the baths here
is known as a Spout bath. You go down into a cave, and water falls
on you from six feet above. The water comes from one of the boiling
springs, cooled to an endurable temperature by the addition of a stream
from a cold lake. Water is conducted from the lakes in trenches to
the baths. The water in the Spout bath has a good deal of oil in it,
and is said to be particularly good for rheumatism. But the worst
case of rheumatism I ever saw was in front of the Spout bathhouse.
A native man was so crippled with it that he moved as slowly as a
snail, and was a pitiful object.... There arrived at this hotel
today a man and wife I had known on the “Sonoma.” He is a fine old
gentleman who lives in a country town in Ohio, but he has at least one
habit to which his wife seriously objects. They sat opposite us in
the dining-room, and I noticed that the old gentleman parted his hair
behind, in the old-fashioned way. And it seemed, also, that he used
hair oil, for regularly three times a day I heard his wife mumbling a
protest because of this hair-oil habit. And tonight at dinner the wife
appeared alone, and was seated at our table, as the manager knew we
were acquaintances. Presently the old gentleman appeared; he had been
indulging in his favorite dissipation, hair oil, and his wife at once
noticed it, and mumbled a protest. The old gentleman pays no attention
to her; indeed, he does not pay much attention to anyone, as he is a
very quiet man. On the “Sonoma” he was an early riser, as I was, and
usually he barely spoke to me when I appeared. But I saw him quite
animated one morning. He was seated on deck, looking out at the sea,
and, soon after I sat down near him, he burst out into a tirade against
the farmers with whom he did business as a country merchant thirty or
forty years ago. He said that in the old day he bought wrapping-twine
of farmers, and that almost invariably he found a stone in the middle
of each ball. One conspicuous offender was an old Baptist deacon.
On one occasion, when this man came into the store after sugar, the
merchant placed in the scoop, with the sugar, a number of stones taken
from balls of twine purchased of the deacon. The deacon watched the
performance, but never said a word; he knew he was guilty, and calmly
took his medicine.... I have witnessed many amateur performances,
but the most amusing one I saw in Rotorua this evening. It was an
entertainment given by native Maoris, and the women guides had been
selling tickets several days. The accompaniments were played on an
accordion, and twenty-five persons took part in some of the numbers.
Twelve young girls sang, and among them I noticed a number of the
fifteen-year-old divers who had jumped for my pennies yesterday at the
bridge marking the entrance to the geyser field. Fourteen men gave
a war dance, and about that number of women gave a “hooche-kooche.”
The entire performance was of this character, and so poor that it
was amusing. After appearing on the stage, the performers came down
to seats in the audience, as amateurs do everywhere, and laughed and
giggled. Every act was applauded, and every performer had an encore
number. One of the men who appeared in the war dance must have been
seventy years old; rather venerable, I thought, for an amateur. We
stood it for an hour, because there was absolutely nothing else to do.
The English pickle and jam manufacturers, and tradesmen of every kind,
claim notable patrons, therefore I was not surprised to find this on
the programme: “Patronized by Lord Kitchener, Madame Melba, and many
other distinguished visitors.” The performance closed with the song,
“God Save the King,” and a dance. The audience was small, and composed
entirely of whites, but out in front of the hall were hundreds of
Maoris lounging about.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19.—I write this by the light of a tallow candle in a
little hotel twenty-four miles from Rotorua. We came here today by a
circuitous route, and saw many wonders on the way. The hotel at which
I am a guest tonight exists to accommodate visitors to the Waiotapu
valley geysers, and these I shall see tomorrow morning, and proceed
to Wairakei, twenty-seven miles, by motor in the afternoon. The names
here are something dreadful; one place we visited yesterday is called
Whakarewarewa, but people refer to it familiarly as Whak.... We left
Rotorua at 8:15 this morning, by stage. We had seats with the driver,
which, in staging, is an honor equal to a seat at the captain’s table
on a ship. We had a pleasant drive of three hours through mountains,
passing Green and Blue lakes on the way. One lake is really green
and the other is really blue, and both may be seen at the same time
from a high place on the stage road. At Green lake we encountered a
photographer, who, after taking our picture, accompanied us down to
a buried town. While we were looking at these ruins, which occupied
us possibly half an hour, the photographer developed and printed
the picture, and took orders from certainly ten of the fourteen
passengers.... In 1886 this section was visited by an earthquake.
A tract of country nineteen miles long was affected, and 135 people,
mostly natives, were killed. After taking a look at the town buried
in 1886, we drove a mile, and embarked on a launch for a ride of
eight miles. Then we walked over a mountain, and embarked on another
launch for a ride of six miles across White lake. This lake is really
a crater, and in spots the water is boiling hot. For some reason,
the water is nearly as white as milk, and in the crumbling walls
surrounding the lake are hundreds of smoking geysers. The place looks
like a lake in purgatory, and the country surrounding it is as desolate
and barren as can be imagined. On this ride we passed the site of the
terraces, or mammoth hot springs, which were destroyed by the eruption
twenty-six years ago. When we landed, we met another party, going the
route we had come, and, as soon as we disembarked, they went on board,
and left us. We found an old guide waiting for us, and started on a
walk of three miles through a lava-bed. We were always in sight of
smoking springs and geysers. At one place we were compelled to ford a
considerable stream, and the guide carried the women across.... The
guide was much the smartest man of his profession we have seen. Just
how accurate his information is, I do not know. He says that most of
the great processes in geology are carried on by internal fires in the
earth, and that what we see on the surface here is constantly going
on, on a very much larger scale, deeper down. The water from every
cool, limpid spring is sent to the surface by the same forces that
cause the mud lakes to bubble and growl; the water of every cold spring
was originally steam, and the water was cleaned of impurities on its
long journey to the surface.... The geyser field of New Zealand is
more than a hundred miles long, and during our journey of twenty-four
miles today we were rarely out of sight of smoking springs. But the
most curious thing we have seen is the White lake, which occupies a
crater caused by the earthquake of 1886. The lake has no outlet, and,
until a few years ago, was a mud geyser. Then it began to fill with
hot water from below. In spots the water is only warm at the surface,
but in many places it is boiling.... The end of our three-mile walk
was a government rest-house. Here we found a carriage awaiting us, and
we drove seven miles to the hotel where we are spending the night. A
storm was threatening when we arrived at the rest-house, and we were
anxious to hurry on, but the English people with us insisted on having
their afternoon tea, and we were forced to wait for them.... Part of
the country over which we traveled today looked like the lake district
of Scotland; the first lake on which we traveled reminded me of Loch
Katrine, and the stage road to it was something like the Trossachs.
But after we reached the lake where the water is white, and occupying
a crater smoking all around the edges, we saw something we had never
seen the like of before.... Wild blackberries are a pest in this
section. We saw hundreds of acres of wild blackberry bushes during
our drive today, the berries just ripening. The best way to get rid
of the bushes, the driver said, was to put goats among them....
This lava district was formerly considered worthless. Some years ago
a man leased fifteen thousand acres of it from the government, at a
rental of £29 per year, or $145. He burned off the bush, sowed a lot of
clover seed, and is now getting rich from sheep.... When I arrived
at this hotel I was very dirty and dusty, from riding on two stages
on dusty roads. So I asked the proprietor for a bath. He gave me a
towel, and called a boy, who led me to a creek two hundred yards down
the hill. The water was warm, and, after warning me not to go above
or below into very hot water, the boy left me to enjoy my swim....
On a ship, an American is always interested in seeing the English
passengers going to their morning baths. They are seen in all the halls
and on all the decks, barefooted, and wearing pajamas. But early this
morning, at the Grand Hotel in Rotorua, I saw a still more unusual
sight. An Englishman came out of the hotel at 7:30 wearing slippers
on bare feet, and dressed only in pajamas. I supposed he was going to
one of the hotel bathrooms, but instead of that, he walked out on the
streets of Rotorua, and calmly proceeded to one of the big bath-houses
three or four blocks away. He was dressed exactly as I represent him;
bareheaded, and smoking a pipe.... While taking an early walk this
morning, I encountered the courthouse in Rotorua. Here are some of the
signs on the office doors: “Stipendiary Magistrate;” “Registrar of Old
Age Pensions;” “Vaccination Inspector;” “Registrar of Deaths, Births
and Marriages.” The office hours of the different officials were:
Saturdays, 10 A. M. to noon; week days, 10 A. M. to 1 P. M., 2 P. M.
to 4 P. M. Counting holidays, that is an average of about four hours
a day for New Zealand officials.... At the moving-picture shows
here the best seats are 36 cents, and a seat on a bench in the extreme
rear of the hall costs 12 cents.... In a Rotorua paper I picked up
last night, I saw a statement that a man had been fined $125 “for sly
grog-selling.” That is what we call “bootlegging.”
MONDAY, JANUARY 20.—I awoke this morning at 5 o’clock, and found
the sun coming up. You have perhaps noted that the sun is not up at
5 A. M. on the 20th of January in our part of the world. While the
days are very warm here, the nights are quite cool; at 5 A. M. I was
quite cold in bed, and awoke to look for more covering.... I read
myself to sleep last night, very comfortably, by the light of a tallow
candle. Electric lights do not seem to be absolutely necessary to the
comfort of mankind.... In riding over the mountains here, I find
great tracts of flourishing pine trees which have been planted by the
government. Convicts did the work. By this means, the barren mountains
are being changed into a living green.... Late last night, a man
somewhere about the hotel engaged in singing; alcoholic singing, I
judged. The vulgar rich are generously abused, but I have noticed that
the higher priced the hotel, the more polite the guests are.... But
while this little hotel in the mountains of New Zealand is somewhat
primitive, I prefer it to the best steamship that ever existed. For
breakfast this morning we had soft-boiled eggs, toast and coffee, with
mutton chops and bacon offered. That is enough for anyone. But on a
ship you are offered a hundred things you do not want, by professional
waiters who are wondering how much of a gratuity they can coax out
of you. The breakfast this morning was served by a girl who, barring
her pronunciation, seemed real nice. She expects no tip; she expects
her pay from the proprietor, whom I have heard her refer to as Mr.
Hickey. And while my room is small, I at least haven’t two snoring
gentlemen in with me.... A young gentleman who ate breakfast with
me has charge of the local postoffice, and says there are several big
sheep ranches in the vicinity, from which he gets a good deal of mail.
The sheep here are well bred, and not at all like the range sheep of
the United States.... While writing in my room last night I felt a
shock, and thought some object had fallen about the hotel. This morning
I learned it was an earthquake; we had three shocks during the night.
Near this place is a place called Earthquake Flat. In passing it the
stage-drivers rest their teams a few minutes, and give the passengers
a chance to experience an earthquake shock. Ten minutes never goes by
at that point without one. At Rotorua, one night we were there, sixty
earthquake shocks were noted from 6 P. M. to 6 A. M.... This morning,
in walking through the Waiotapu geyser field, we had a satisfactory
guide; a native Maori. He didn’t say much, and, if we wanted to know
about anything, asked him about it. Yesterday we had a guide who talked
incessantly, and he was a bore. He was an Englishman, and we were glad
to get rid of him. Adelaide refused to go out to the geyser field this
morning; she is tired seeing them, as they are all much alike....
At 1 P. M. today we left Waiotapu for Wairakei, in a seven-passenger
Napier automobile. The distance is twenty-seven miles, over a mountain
road, and we ran it in two hours, with the usual rests for tea. The
roads were good, and the ride enjoyable. The Napier is an English
six-cylinder car, and the driver was very capable and agreeable....
Arriving at the hotel at Wairakei, we found the most gallant man in the
world. He runs a hotel consisting of a number of detached buildings. In
the main one he has _two_ toilet-rooms for women, with modern plumbing,
but the men are compelled to content themselves with a toilet-room of
the country-hotel pattern, located out in the yard, near the stables,
and it is very filthy, and filled with big blue flies. Another law
I suggest is, that no man be allowed to conduct a hotel until he is
able to provide proper toilet facilities. The hotel at Wairakei is
located near a geyser field. Another difference between Yellowstone
Park and the New Zealand geyser country is that in the Yellowstone
you find modern hotels; that at the Norris geyser basin is a palace.
Here, after leaving Rotorua, we found the hotels primitive, and not
very comfortable.... There are many deer in New Zealand; also
wild cattle, wild pigs, California quail, pheasants, etc. Several
times I have seen California quail along the country roads.... A
remarkable thing we saw yesterday was a mud volcano; a small mountain,
in the center of which was a boiling mud spring. The spring is
constantly throwing out mud, and thus the mountain grows steadily in
height.... To be a Maori, is to be a pensioner. The natives employ
smart lawyers to bring all sorts of claims against the government, and
these win often enough to be profitable. The lands the natives own
are uncultivated, and the natives are a drawback to the country. All
of which is very much American Indian.... Over here the government
does everything, including selling tickets to tourists. The government
owns the town of Rotorua, and brings it water and light from waterfalls
in the neighboring mountains.... If you are a bad sleeper, do not
travel. I was awake at 4 o’clock this morning, and there was not the
slightest noise about the hotel from that hour until 7:15, when I heard
an alarm clock go off. You don’t know what it is to be really lonesome
unless you have spent a sleepless night in a strange hotel in a strange
country.... A man came in this evening from Lake Taupo, with a big
catch of trout. Some of the fish were very thin in flesh; so thin that
they were worthless. It is said fish are so plentiful in the lake that
there is not enough for them to eat. Most of the fish weighed from
six to seven pounds.... We hear of geysers that shoot steam and
hot water fifteen hundred feet in the air, but we have seen no geyser
here more than thirty feet high. The big sights are always just over
when I come along.... At this hotel, when you wish to take a bath,
you go out to the manager’s office, and find a key hanging beside the
door. This key opens a door down in the canyon, back of the hotel.
The bath consists of a great pool of hot water. There is no roof over
the pool, but it is fenced in. Within the enclosure, also, is a pool
of cold water, into which you may plunge after a hot bath. Certain
hours are devoted to gentlemen, and certain hours to ladies....
Rooms in this hotel are also lighted with candles, and I dislike to
blow out my candle and go to bed, as I can smell the extinguished wick
half the night.... The food in New Zealand is universally good;
we have come to the conclusion that the New Zealanders are famous
cooks.... We find a good many private cars touring in this section,
as the government devotes much attention to roads, which are generally
excellent, barring the terrible dust. Yesterday we met a little Ford
machine, and it seemed to be kicking up about as much dust as any of
them.... The rainfall here is greater than in the best agricultural
sections of the United States, but the bulk of the rain falls in
winter, whereas our moisture is better distributed over the growing
season.