This title, which at first aroused astonishment, reflected the economic importance attributed to the development of New Zealand spa tourism and the hope of attracting an influx of international curists, drawn by the beauty and virtues of the North Island's thermal zone.

[2] Despite some of the errors typical of the medical concepts of the time, Wohlmann brought a scientific and holistic approach to the practice of thermalism, the latter being particularly in tune with the government's tourist propaganda, thanks to the importance attached to a change of scenery.

During the period, most European countries and the United States experienced the "spa fever", with the expansion or launch of spas and their provision of prestigious tourist facilities to satisfy the growing demand for hydrotherapy cures and mineral water consumption.

[3][4][5] In 1874, William Fox recommended that the New Zealand Government follow the American example of Yellowstone National Park, created in 1872, and intervene to protect the spa areas of the North Island.

In October, during parliamentary debates on the budget, the allocation of a £1,000 line for the annual salary and expenses of a balneologist – a large sum reflecting the national importance of the function – was denounced by the opposition as a "gross extravagance".

[15][18] It attracted criticism from some of the press: while the Otago Witness assumed that the term referred to the North Island's hot springs,[19] the Ohinemuri Gazette suggested that the role of a balneologist would be to show patients how to locate whales in the warm waters of Lake Rotorua;[20] the Daily Telegraph regarded the choice of the term as a form of offensiveness designed to conceal the nature of the tasks involved;[21] and the Observer suggested that, as the necessary "expertise" seemed easy to acquire, the post could easily be awarded to a local resident.

[22] By 1898, Reeves met Dr. Karl Grube, head physician at the Bad Neuenahr spa clinic and known for his "young, energetic personality, extensive experience of thermal springs and thorough knowledge of the subject".

[24] In March 1902, several New Zealand newspapers announced the nomination of Arthur Stanley Wohlmann to the post of government balneologist, often mentioning a decisive fact: despite his Teutonic-sounding name,[25] he came from a family that had been "English for two hundred years".

[43][44] These publications were part of a strategy developed by Donne, the director of the tourism promotion department, to present New Zealand as a "thermal wonderland" and a "cureland", the spa par excellence of the southern hemisphere.

[38] He complained both about the dilapidated state of the existing facilities and their dangerous nature, as some baths – which he privately compared to pigsties[52] – were built directly above the springs, exposing their users to fumaroles.

[53] Despite the apparent support of the government, work did not begin until 1905,[54] an article published in the New Zealand Herald that same year reflecting the frustration engendered by this procrastination: "we have a brilliant balneologist, but in practice, we have no baths".

[59] Many treatments are modeled on those offered in European spas: massage showers according to Dr. Forestier's Aix method, recommended for rheumatism and gout, but also supposed to remedy the atonic condition of the viscera; hot-air Greville baths, intended to relieve effusions; Plombières showers reputed to be effective for "arthritic diseases of the colon"; electric baths used to remedy nervous weakness; or the newly-discovered X-rays used to treat dermatological problems.

[59] In 1913, after returning to Britain for a few months to recover from a fall from a horse, Wohlmann met Dr. Sigmund Saubermann from Berlin, who explained the therapeutic benefits of radioactive mineral water.

[61] He convinced the government that the public was "radium-mad"[62] and secured the purchase of an "activator" from a specialist firm in London to enrich mineral water with radium emanation, or radon, to be administered orally in doses of four to six glasses a day,[63] drunk at "frequent intervals" to "maintain the charge in the blood".

[72][73] Wohlmann, supported by the Department of Tourism, argued that these luxuries were necessary to enable Rotorua to compete with the great spas of international renown, but soon after the official opening, the government gradually became more and more reluctant to finance further investment.

[68] Wohlmann had to write several letters to the Department of Tourism, pointing out that the plasterwork on the walls and ceilings was cracking, with chunks of plaster liable to fall off and injure guests.

In his 1914 book on mineral waters, he summarized the results obtained on 593 patients he had personally treated over the previous three years at the new Rotorua establishment estimating that 536 of them had improved, particularly in cases of rheumatism and arthritis, but also neurasthenia.

[2] In 1915, he assumed responsibility for a newly-built hospital in Rotorua for convalescent soldiers, providing treatment which he described in 1916 and 1918 in articles for the New Zealand Medical Journal[81][82] and later in a book published in 1918,[83] for which he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

[2] However, a review published in the British Medical Journal in 1920 felt that the work reflected the difficulties of New Zealand's isolation during the war, and that the author tended to exaggerate the benefits of his elastic-based devices.

[85] In the preface, Wohlmann argues that, while New Zealand spas cannot compete socially with those in Europe, the change of atmosphere is one of the important aspects of a cure, and that in this respect New Zealand, with "its strange and wonderful scenery, its splendid lakes, [...] its geysers, its bubbling springs, [...] its picturesque Maori villages, [...] its housewives washing their clothes in a hot spring or nonchalantly cooking in a steam pit, offers more of a change of scenery than a visit to a continental spa".

This evolution is consistent with the changing perception of geothermal water issues in New Zealand since the mid-twentieth century, first seen as a spectacle for tourists, then as a remedy in the form of baths or beverages, then as a leisure activity, before being mainly considered today from the angle of energy supply.