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Story: Hospitals

Spa treatment, Rotorua

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Spa treatment, Rotorua

New Zealand's first therapeutic spa opened in Rotorua in 1885 and spa treatments soon became popular. This man is receiving an electricity-based treatment in a slipper bath at the government spa in Rotorua in the 1920s. The combination of water and electricity seems alarming, but presumably the patient was insulated from life-threatening shocks.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PA1-f-051-28-3

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Linda Bryder, Hospitals – Spas, sanatoriums and surgery, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/27550/spa-treatment-rotorua (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Linda Bryder, published 22 March 2011, updated 1 July 2022.