TEPID BATHS

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 10

TEPID BATHS

£30,000 LOAN

MORE INFORMATION WANTED

APPLICATION TO BOARD

Several new paragraphs were addod to the long and contentious history of the campaign for tepid baths in Wellington yesterday afternoon when the works committee of the City Council recommended that the City Engineer be instructed to prepare the necessary plans and that application be made to the Local Government/ Loans Board for authority to raise a loan of £30,000 for the erection of a tepid swimming bath 100 ft long by 50ft wide with slipper baths and Turkish baths on the old tramway power station site, Wakefield Street; that the sum of £13,800 compensation received for the Thorndon Esplanade, plus interest thereon, be added to the loan, making a total of approximately £44,000; and subject to the proposal being approved by the Loans Board, that it be placed before the ratepayers at the municipal elections to be held in May this year. The chairman of the committee (Councillor J. Burns) referred to the conferences which had taken place •with the swimmers who wanted a bath of some 150 ft long, negotiations therefore falling through.. The site now suggested was in Wakefield Street, and [at a special meeting on Wednesday the matter was threshed out, and it was agreed that a bath 100 ft long would serve. It was also agreed by the committee that the bath could be 50ft wide. The cost of annual maintenance would be hard to determine, but there was a probability of revenue for a year or two. He thought Turkish baths should be provided by private enterprise. The present recommendation, however, approved of Turkish baths. Councillor W. H. Bennett asked if Turkish baths were necessary. Councillor M. F. Luckie said that it was just as important for the City Council to provide Turkish baths as any other form of baths. The Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop): There are two Turkish baths operating. Councillor Luckie: Yes, but Turkish baths are a matter for the public to provide. They are in the interest of public health. INFORMATION WANTED. Councillor R. McKeen said he considered the council should get information regarding the experiences of Auckland and Invercargill before making a move. Tepid baths were necessary in Wellington because it was a city with a large rooming population. Slipper and Turkish baths would be popular and the council should place the matter before the ratepayers; if they wanted baths they would vote for them. Councillor 11. A. Huggins said that Wellington had splendid bathing facilities in the sea, but there were people who could not bathe in the sea, especially in cold weather, and the council should provide baths for them. It was useless to compare Wellington with Auckland, bt cause the harbour at Auckland was almost tepid all the year round. A councillor: In winter! HEALTH VIEWPOINT. Councillor R. Semple said that at every municipal election the question had been a prominent one, and the council had always answered in a sympathetic way. The profit-making aspect was immaterial. There were many people living in rooms who had not adequate access to hot or tepid baths, which was essential from a health point of view. The question should be referred to the people. Councillor P. M. Butler said he / had given an assurance of adequate swimming baths in Wellington, and he must adhere to that. The adequacy depended on the requirements of the people. The tepid baths, it was contended, had to be in the heart of the city on a site that could well be used for other civic purposes. Covered swimming baths could be supplied at Te Aro at 50 per cent, less than the' proposed tepid baths. In the summer people went to the beaches, and the tepid baths would be used only in the winter. He moved that the matter be referred back to the committee to give- full information, with a view to providing tepid baths that would serve as people wanted them to serve. The Mayor said that objections would have to be considered within 14 days. ' If it was decided to take a poll, it would be cheaper at election time. There would be_no chance of going ahead with the 'proposal at all now, unless proceedings were taken at once, as • there was only one more meeting of the Loans Board. QUESTION OF SITE. Councillor P. Fraser said that if the matter were held up nothing could be done for two years. The question of the site was decided, and all that remained' to do was to vote for or against the report. The central site appealed to him. To say that baths should be erected in an out-of-the-way place was absurd. Was it necessary to specify in the advertisement calling for objections the site of the proposed baths? Full particulars, said the Mayor, would have to go to the Loans Board. The report was purely for information, and in 14 days it would be decided if the matter was to be forwarded to the Loans Board. The position was that the engineer be instructed to prepare plans, and these would necessarily include the site, which had long ago been determined by the council. He had sat with the reserves committee when the matter was discussed, and he was of the opinion that the matter should go to the ratepayers. "It is the only decent thing we can do," said Mr. Hislop, who added that full particulars as to figures, etc., would be made available. Councillor L. McKenzie thought that the costs should be considered. Councillor Fraser: We talked of it fifteen years ago. Councillor McKenzie said that the vote against the library site (Mercer Street) had been carried without full information". The new- site would double the cost of the baths. The KJsrcer Street site, according to the engineer's report, was £21,000, whereas on the other site the baths were estimated to cost £44,000. The Mayor: We decided that the building itself was a danger there. Councillor McKenzie pointed out the discrepancy in the costs of tepid baths in other centres, but £20,000 was less than the average of these costs. If the proposal went to the Loans Board in its present form, he would not stand to it, as he considered that the cost was excessive. The Mayor said that the cost in Mercer Street provided for seating 450 people and did not provide for Turkish baths, with a bath of 100 x 40, whereas on the other site Turkish baths were included, and a bath 100 x 50 with seating, for 1000. " CENTRAL SITE FAVOURED. Councillor J. Burns, in replying, stressed the importance of a central I site and expressed surprise at Councillor Butler's attitude. The question of erecting tepid baths alongside the Te Aro Baths had been discussed with the swimmers, and they were against it; they were all in favour of a central site. The City Treasurer had said that the rates for the proposed baths loan

on a section valued at £150 would be only 4d a year, and on a £500 section it would cost the owner only Is 2d a year. Councillor Butler said that the point he had raised was that the tepid baths might be built on the site of the Te Aro Baths, covered in, and used as cold baths in the summer and as tepid baths in the winter.

On the motion of the Mayor, it was decided to instruct the engineer to prepare plans, to secure further information, and to consider formal application to the Loans Board on March 14.