THE PEOPLE'S BATHS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1230, 12 September 1911, Page 5

THE PEOPLE'S BATHS.

-0 ARE CHANGES AFOOT? FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE P At tho last meeting of the City Council, Councillor Godbor suggested that the municipal baths might be kept open until midday on Sunday during the summer months. Some citizens, noting this, seem to bo vaguely surprised that tho baths are closed at all 011 summer days, and, particularly, 011 the one day 011 which all tuny batho and bask behind tho To Aro or 'J'horndon palisades, lindiug fascination in tho dancing tips of the wavelets anil food for thought in tho cralj which moves over tho sandy bottom, a clear six feet below the surface. TIIO custom in (110 past has been to close at church hour— 11 a.m. Kecking intormation > oil ' UlO whole matter, a reporter approached au authority. "Noon—yes, they're asking that tho baths bo open till noon, so that those who get up at 9 o'clock now to have a swim will bo able io lio in bed another hour. Later, someone will say: Why not ono o'clock? Then the lazy man will have still another hour to lio in lied without being robbed of his bath. What's tho good of all this 'engineering' tho hours of the baths? Let them be as tliey aro. and those who want sea-bathing will got it, hut there are others who fancy that,' if tho hours were extended, they might ■tako it'up. Believe mo they don't! "Not so long ago there was an agitation that tho baths should be open 011 certain holidays, ami correspondents wrote to th# papers crying out no*' bad it was that the people's oaths should lw closed 011 a public holiday. So, the City Council, wishing to do tho right thing by everybody, resolved to open the baths 011 holidavs. Do you know that the takings oa holidays havo fallen as low as fourponce, and they have never nearly justified tho baths being kept open? People do not worry about baths on a public holidqv, and 'if they aro a bath-lovinß peoplo they go out to tho beaches. You can lire' a gun along Clyde Quay on a holiday forenoon, and will not hit anyone—they aro all in the country or over tho liojy hour." Has Lyall Bay Conquered? "Anyhow," continued tho informant, "baths aro not so popular as they were. "How is that?" Well, they aro net so popular because seabathing has taken another form. The surf —that's what they like—and the opening up of tho beaches by tlifc trains lias helped tho idea along. It is quite common to eco 3000 or 4COO people on the Lyall Bay beach on a lino Sunday. A lot of thoso used to put in the morning at tho Baths— now they like the freedom of the beach. "Tho revenue of the Tc Aro Bulbs climbed up -steadily until last year, when it went back with a rush--a drop 01 nearly .£IOO. That was owing to the popularity of Lvall Bay. The tendency is the sairio all over tho world. Swimming is not an increasingly popular sport. I am sorry to say—the attendances 1 at the "baths provo that, I think." Are Thorndon Baths Doomed? 1 Tho Thorndon Baths are doomed. Not only is the residential population of Thorndon a decreasing one, but the adjacent harbour works have caused a certain amount of silting' up which has not improved these baths as baths. On tho one hand there is the Government reclamation consequent upon the . attempt to shako some of tho twists out of tho Wol-lington-Hutt railway line, and, 011 tho other, tliero is the gradual reclamation which is being effected by tho drcdgo Whakarira by pumping the deposits between tho shore and the big training wall just erected by the Ilarbour Board. Tho Baths wore never a wildly successful venture,'and, year by year, they al'c becoming a poorer revenue-producer. 011 the other hand the To Aro Baths havo always-been fairly popular—not so popular as they should bo perhaps—and tho returns from that quarter rose steadily until Lyall Bay opened her brown arms and converted swiimners of both sexes into surfers.

Gross Revenue of the Baths. The following gross revenue figures may intorest those connected with the subjoct of municipal baths:— Thorndon. Tp Aro. '£ s. d. £ s. d. 1906-7 191 5 1 416 18 7 1907-8 221 7 7 454 1 6 IiW.S-9 'Sin 4 5 473 15 0 •1909-10 197 7 5 70G 1 11 1910-11 148 18 ■ G2O 9 8 '