BRITISH HOUSING BILL

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 223, 8 June 1923, Page 7

BRITISH HOUSING BILL

NECESSITY OF BATHROOMS DEBATED. London, June 6. Whether a bath is a necessity or a luxury was the subject of a debate before a committee of tho House of Commons, which is considering the Housing Bill. Tlie discussion was originated by Captain Wedgwood Benn, who proposed an amendment to the Bill that every flat and tenement must contain a fixed bath. This was defeated by 25 votes to 19.

The Labour members, in supporting the amendment, insisted that a bathroom was necessary to a decent, healthy life, but Conservative members pointed out that the conversion of big houses into flats was the only provision in the Bill which was likely to -help middle-class folk. If a bath wero required in each flat the conversion would bo impossible. Mr. E. G. Pretyman and Sir R. Newman questioned the necessity for a bath, saying that, our great-grand-fathers washed twice —once When they were born, and once when they died.’ Major Molloy said that personally ho would rather live in a converted flat without a bath than in the open air. Bathing was not a necessity, but a luxury. Some of the healthiest people in tiie world never washed. Provision for a fixed bath, like a piano, was an obsession with some people, because it gave -an air of respectability to the household. —Aus.-.N.Z. Cable Assn.