TE ARO BATHS.

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 12

TE ARO BATHS.

SELF-CONTAINED DRAINAGE

SURPRISING CONDITIONS

Judging from the condition of Te Aro Baths yesterday, when the chairman of the baths and reserves committee .(Councillor J. Burns) and members of the committee' met the : bathers and' heard some straight talking, there is a good deal of foundation for the complaints that have been made. In the first, place there is - only one inlet ts the baths, on. the Oriental Bay end. This is not much more than eighteen inches in diameter, but through it has to come all the water which gets into the baths. This same water, having been used by hundreds and hundreds of men, passes through to the women's bath. There is no means' of completely emptying the baths at any time, and in order to keep them full, when the tides recede, the water is retained for considerable periods. .

' This is not the most objectionable feature. The shower baths used by the men are immediately over part of the women's baths, and the soapy water containing the results of the washings of the men's bodies simply drips through the floors for the women to bathe in.

There were not'so many actually in the water today, most-of those present being interested in the visit of the baths and reserves committee, but the condition of the water was far from pleasing. All the seaweed and other rubbish that comes in with the tides settles in the deeper portion of the baths, and after half-a-dozen divers had.gone to the bottom on the deep side, one of them bringing up a handful of indeterminate slime, the colour of the water. changed from a dirty green to an indian ink tint, as if some i big squid had discharged his protective fluids below. In this murky fluid there slowly gyrated feathery wreaths of decomposing, seaweed, and the smell (aroused when the bottom was disturbed was revolting. No greater contrast could have been obtained than that of the condition of the clear sea water outside the enclosed bath and that of the dingy contaminated water within. ■

The lavatory accommodation was admitted 'by the committee to be obsolete and. inadequate; with a pitiful lack of room.

Suggestions made included the extension of the baths, relieving congestion there by. providing dressing facilities at Oriental Bay beach, and provision for. sunbathing facilities, 'which the congestion and the inability to use the galleries at certain times hamper at present.

The members of the -reserves committee held a meeting at the baths after the representations made to them, and the Director of Parks and. Reserves (Mr. J. G. MacKenzie) was instructed to confer with the City Engineer (Mr. G. A. Hart) in regard to action to clean the bath floors. An analysis of the water in the men's bath is to be made to determine whether the state of the water affects bathers' eyes. Many well-known citizens assert that it does. ..: The provision of better inlets and outlets for the water is to be considered, and action is to be taken to' drain, the shower effluent away from the baths. ■ '