THE BATHS SITE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 10 August 1925, Page 6

THE BATHS SITE

AN ARGUMENT ON THE

WAY

THE MERCER STREET PROPOSAL

IS IT ECONOMICALLY SOUND!

(By "H,")

Mangahao power has now been coming into the city for • some months, and is presumably shaking down to maximum reliability— there is invariably a period of adjustment and trying-out with every such scheme—and the Mercer street power house may consequently be going out of commission in, a few ■months' time. That will leave the site available for bath purposes, providing always that there is no change of policy in the meantime. From what can be gathered, there is not by any means a unanimity of opinion among present councillors that this site is economically the best. . . .

Three or four years ago the tepid and Turkish baths issue was a very lively one in Wellington; it was invariably upon the* menu M on* of the main dishes at each gathering of city councillors, and later, if not given a prominent place at the meetings, was at least to be asked about during the nuts and wine course, at "question time." For long the argument centred about the question of what was intended under the 1920 loan heading of "Hot salt water baths and Turkish batb.B." Were "hot salt water baths" to bath in, to lie. in and soak in for the good of one's health, or baths to bathe in, still for the good of one's health, but with any amount of freedom oi action ? The general impression, which is probably pretty near the mark, is that it was decided that "hot salt water baths" meant baths to bathe in. and that the site should be that of the old electric lighting . station in Mercer street. Though the issue has laid, by, quietly for a considerable time it is quite probable that it will be to the fore again shortly.

Among the reasons advanced for the conversion of the power house to a bath house were the facts that a pipe line is already laid to the sea, and that a part of the existing boiler plant might be used for water heating, but it appears that there are now other views as well : first, that the site is far .too valuable for the purposes of a bath house; secondly, that it is not suitably placed as regards a population centre; and, thirdly, that high pressure steam heating of water is anything but an economical method.

VERY VALUABLE PIECE OF LAND

To the coat of the actual bath and bath building, say those who doubt the extreme suitability of the site, must be added the cost of the land on which the building stands, and only by th«* erection of a six-storied building and by giving the baths a floor or basement could baths be economically justified in such a position. It may be mentioned that the designers of many of the latest sports buildings, particularly in America, do not favour the placing of th»' swimming bath on the ground floor or in the basement, but place it right at the top of the building, possibly a good many stories up, for the benefit of good lighting and ventilation, neither of which can be had when the bath is on th» ground floor. For. the sum which would represent the value :of the land—the much smaller area on which the Education Boards building stands, on the opposite side of Mercer street, has very recently been valued at £40,000—plus the cost of tho bath building and equipment, the oppositionists contend, several baths, possibly with heating provision (perhaps Mangahao power during the slack night hours) could be built iii population centres.

BENEFIT TO THE FEW

In that regard,' they argue that the carrying out of the Mercer street scheme would benefit, as far as regular use was concerned, only a very small proportion of citizens, merely the comparative few who live right in the city, and in hotels and boarding-houses, for even universal tram fares, or free trips, for that matter, would not attract to mid-city baths the people of Newtown, of Northland, Karori, Wadestown, or from any of the suburbs; the warm salt-water bath would be looked upon as a luxury, not something to be enjoyed as part of the day's doings. The bath, unlike the seaside, cannot be made so attractive that one desires to spend a whole day in it, and consequently the inducement to make fairly long trips from outer suburbs to a central bath is not that which takes crowds to the seaside. That being so, it is by no means certain that the baths revenue, derived,; after all, from the regular threepenny piece, and not from occasional great occasions, be they never so successful, would.not balance off effectively with the very heavy outgoings, in burdening capital charges (land as well as building), and maintenance and staff expenses. There are several schools within easy distance of the Mercer street site certainly, but between them and the bath lie th» heavy traffic streets of the city, and to take a procession of a hundred or a couple of hundred children over Mauners and Willis streets is to invite . risk of accident.

STEAM HEATING COSTLY

There appears to be a pretty general opinion among experts that high pressure heating of water for bath purposes is a fairly costly business. Under the regulations governing boiler-rooms it is necessary to have an attendant steadily on duty, and as qualified boiler-room attendants are as human as the next man in regard to houri of work. and sleep, it follows that shifts must be worked. Boiler-room attendance would probably work out at' something about the £1000 mark per' annum, probably very much more. Christchurch operated its municipal tepid baths (fresh water) in conjunction with its steam power-house; so did Auckland, until hydro-electric power came in to spoil oil steam plants. What the present position is in Christcliurch' I do not know, but Auckland has necessarily changed to a special bath-heating system, and uses« steam generated' at high pressure. This system has not been long in operation, but no doubt has been carried on Jong enough to give a good indication of the cost oi such a method of heating.

The Boys' Institute baths, Tasman street, are warmed upon the low pressure, circulating principle. The furmice is stoked up and the stoker goes away and sees that no'one gets out ot his depth," or for a walk, or for any other duty. Some years ago, following a. comment which was made tit the connoil table as to. the expensive manner m which the- institute baths were operated, an inquiry wns made into several systems of heating by the institute authorities, 'who were able to convince themselves, if not the council, that tho lowpressure system was markedly less costly tiiau high<£rguiu'« ayitea s.t hating..

As suggested above, cheap electric power, during the slack hours of the night, may offer another alternative.

SPECIAL SUITABILITY OF BUILDING

For long there has been a demand for a central swimming bathi at which evening tournament* could be held on a large and profitable scale, but it it a question of the economics balance—does the requirement of such a central bath warrant the use of so valuable a site for the purpose? Are there no other sites suitable, nearer residential areas, yet fairly central and considerably lower m building value? It may be that a sit* on Te Aro Reclamation, possibly connected with the destructor plant for the . benefit of condenser -heating of water, would commend itself as a more economic proposition, providing that baths may be constructed satisfactorily upon reclaimed land, which hai attained no remarkable degree of consolidation. The particular suitability of the power house for conversion to baths rather than to any other purpose is, of course, another factor to be considered. It may- be ( that the newer portion of tlm building, with its solidly-constructed walls and clear span of roof, with practically no partition walling to be removed, is admirably suited to ready conversion, while the design may be such that nothing short of almost complete rebuilding could fit the building for office or other purposes. ' That is a matter for expert determination .

A LARGE ORDER

It his been suggetted that the Mercer Street Baths should have a spectators' gallery of very large capacity—two or three thousand have been mentioned airily by those putting forward suggestions—in order that Wellington's carnivals might rank above all others, but the two thousand spectators seated about a swimming pool go to the making of a very large order. The Town Hall, 1 upstairs and down, stage, and organ gallery, seats only about three thousand, and it is obvious that a bathhouse to accommodate two thousand, let alone three thousand, would necessarily be a remarkably large bathhouse, so much so that, like the. Wallace street tram, it' might "never pay axle grease." Certainly a great deal more than mere conversion would be called for to fit th« present power-house to bath purposes on such a scale. ■' ■.

ENGLAND AND AMERICA

In England' the general bath policy . appears to be to build a number of swimming baths, tepid or otherwise, in residential areas, rather than to construct one great central bath, the cost . of which is so heavy that the remainder of the bath-building programme is shelved for long enough to come, for baths, unfortunately, do not as a rule, pay their way. • America, it one judges rightly from town-planning and other journal!, has recently, in addition to her tepid baths, gone in for a good number of strictly open-air swimming places, "ole swimmin' 'olea," as they are termed. These are often in the shape of great concreted ovals or in arterial and planted "meadow streams," the latter idea apparently Being to get back to the old farm—all Americans, apparently once lived at the old homestead—and the " 'ole swimmin' 'ole days." The Khundallah swimming pool is planned very much on these lines, but it would not necessarily suit New Zealand city localities generally. The. weather conditions in many parts of the United States, great heat in summer and great cold in winter, probably make for the attractiveness of the open-air type of Bwimi ming place. ■ There is room for any amount of argu-: ment about the tepid bath question, and without a doubt that argument will come in due time.