BATHERS AND BY-LAWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 92, 18 April 1913, Page 4

BATHERS AND BY-LAWS.

Last night the City Council adopted a scries of by-laws dealing with the use uf our public baths and beaches; and one of the regulations which was accepted by the Council lias already given rise to rather heated discussion. The necessity for putting some restriction on the practice of "sunbathing,", even in the modified form in which it has become common here, has long since been evident to every responsible person who has walked about our beaches during the summer; and, in our opinion, the City Council has not been either precipitate or unduly stringent in its action. Mixed bathing, when suitable costume is worn, we have always supported, and we still maintain that it is entirely unobjectionable when properly regulated. But though lying in the sun in bathing attire may be very pleasant for the bather, .it i 3 obviously open to serious objection, especially when the practice is followed by a very large number of men or -women on the very restricted areas available on most of our beaches. There is very little space to move .-about in on Shelly Beach, for example, or at any of our more popular bathing resorts; and it 6eems to us tha-tit should hardly be necessary to. emphasise the objectionable character of the spectacle presented by a large number of almost entirely nude men and women lying about in more or less unpicturesque attitudes in the garments in .which they have, juet emerged ;from ihoiiwater. We do not suppose'

that the people of Sydney are extremepurists on--Such, questions, -.but r, at. Manly and other great bathing centres around Sydney, regulations to prevent loitering or lying about the beaches in Ibathing costume are rigidly enforced. What is necessary on the great open expanse of beach at Manly is, in our

opinion, _~ still more necessary on the very limited area at Shelly Beach; and we hope that the new City Council will endorse this view of the case emphatically when the-by-law is submitted to it for confirmation. Without such a regulation the question will very soon be raised whether mixed bathing ought not to be prohibited altogether.