BATHING DRESS RULES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 12

BATHING DRESS RULES

No By-laws For City Beaches Persons bathing on the Christchurch city beaches will not find a City Council inspector enforcing any form of bathing dress or costume, for the council has no by-laws on the subject and leaves the matter to the Police Offences Act When its by-laws were framed it had no beaches under its control Sumner and New Brighton have been added in comparatively recent years '~ The old New Brighton Borough Council used to have by-laws covering bathing costumes in prebikini days The 1917 by-laws provided that no person shall bathe within view of any public place unless properly attired, and the proper attire was fixed as: “for men and boys a full neck-to-knee costume of a dark blue or black colour, together with trunks,” and for women and girls: “a loose-fitting neck-to-knee costume of dark blue or black.”

In those days no-one . was allowed to appear in the streets while in a, bathing costume unless also wearing “an overcoat or other garment effectively cloaking the person neck-to-knee.” But in tlie 1930’s the borough council came up with the times and abolished its regulations leaving the matter of adequate covering to commonsense. The City Council gives its bath’s custodians power to refuse access to the pool and order the removal of anyone regarded as improperly dressed; and it still has a by-law prohibiting anyone over the age of 12 from bathing in the Avon river unless “attired in a suitable bathing dress neck-to-knee.”