The city, on the volcanic plateau in the heart of the thermal belt of North Island, is the centre of a remarkable array of hot springs, boiling mud pools, and spouting geysers. Its spa, with its mineral waters, and the adjacent gardens and lakeside government sanatorium were formerly the main attraction for visitors. Linked to Auckland and Wellington by road and rail, Rotorua remains the chief resort and convention centre of the region. It is also expanding as the commercial focus of a sheep-, beef-, and dairy-farming area that has undergone intensive land development since 1970. Other local industry provides concrete and building products, insecticides, engineering goods, and butter. There are extensive tree plantations, begun in the 1920s, which supply large sawmills and pulp and paper plants. The Forest Research Institute, founded at Rotorua in 1947, coordinates all research of the New Zealand Forest Service. A high proportion of the area's population is Maori. Pop. (2001) 52,608.