COSTUMES OPTIONAL

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21330, 24 November 1934, Page 12

COSTUMES OPTIONAL

bathim; at han.mkh haths! It is not generally known that the wearing of bathing costumes at the thermal baths at Hanmer Springs is optional, most persons being under the impression that bathing in the nude is compulsory. The Tourist Department, which controlled the baths for the 20 years following their opening 35 years ago, put into operation a rule that bathing must be in the nude. There has never been any Public Heallh Department rule to this effect since its assumption of control 15 years ago. Some Hanmer residents have held the opinion that nude bathing was objectionable to some persons, but were not aware that the old regulation had lapsed with the change of control. The question, however, has never been seriously raised. The information that costumes were permissible received some publicity on Wednesday when an attendant at the baths, noticing a visitor carrying a costume, informed him that he might wear it if he wished. On the same evening the Hanmer Springs Progress League, in response to an enquiry it had made, received a letter from Dr. P. Chisholm. medical superintendent in charge of the Queen Mary Hospital, stating that bathers' could please themselves whether they wore a costume, as there was no Health Department regulation forbidding it. A letter was received from the Canterbury Progress League asking for the appointment of two delegates for a conference on December R conferninrr hqtb improvements at Hanrner. Mr J. Manson (chairman 1 and Mr C. H. Ensor were appointed