and is solely used for persons suffering from cutaneous [skin] complaints’. There was no mention of Maori use. In the detailed analysis of each spring it was noted that ‘Spring No 7 is tepid and not much used’.⁶⁶ In the early 1900s, the Government Balneologist recorded:

Bath No 7 is a small wooden building containing somewhat primitive baths, one reserved for the free use of the Maoris, and one for skin cases. The latter is partly supplied by Spring No 16, a cold saline water containing a certain amount of sulphuretted hydrogen in solution.⁶⁷

Water to fill the baths in bath-house 7 must have all been piped in, since Wohlmann had already noted that spring 7 no longer existed. Henderson and Bartrum commented, ‘Spring No 7 was at one time connected with a bath which was never popular, and no longer exists.’⁶⁸

A bath house had been constructed over spring 7 in 1886 for Maori use, but the building known as bath-house 7 presently on site was erected in 1892. It contained two bathrooms with timber baths’ – the ‘sulphur bath’ and the ‘Maori bath’. In 1905, the timber sulphur bath was replaced with a large iron enamel bath. In the 1920s, a porcelain bath was installed in the Maori bath. By this time, spring 7 was no longer in existence and water was piped in from spring 16. By 1992, when a conservation report was done, the building was described as being ‘in poor condition, although a number of original damaged and decaying elements exist’. The sulphur bath was being used as workshop and storage and the Maori bath had not been used for many years. The recommendations made in 1992 were as follows:

This building’s use historically was exclusively for both Maori people and those suffering from skin disease and is considered offensive amongst local Maori. The proposal to refurbish this building for their continued exclusive use is not now popular.

It is recommended that the building be conserved and refurbished for use as a two roomed bathhouse with baths to accommodate two people. These could be run as part of the thermal pool complex available for 1/2 or 1 hour periods. Reinstating a supply from the No 16 sulphur spring should be included.⁶⁹

In 1999, the building was restored and a new bath installed (the old bath is now in the museum in the Cadman building). The whole area of Te Aroha Domain is protected under the Historic Places Act 1993. However, the issue of Maori use of bath-house 7 and other management issues have not been fully resolved.

66.Ingram, pp 6, 9

67.Wohlmann, p 65

68.Henderson and Bartrum, p 32

69.Goode and Matthews, app 7, register item 7 (Stokes, p 250)