MUD AND SLIME

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 87, 9 October 1935, Page 12

MUD AND SLIME

I TE ARO BATHS

CLEANING OPERATIONS

TREASURES OF THE PAST

Thirty years' accumulation of mud, seaweed, and miscellaneous small articles lost by careless bathers is being sucked from the floor of the Te Aro baths by an outsize in floating vacuum cleaners and cast-into the sea on the harbour side of the bath walls. Workmen; have been engaged on the task of cleaning the baths for two weeks and;they will need about six more weeks/to complete the job.

The method of cleaning is simple but ingenious. Fresh-water baths are usually cleaned after they have been drained, but the pressure of the sea against the walls of the Te Aro baths is one reason why that method cannot be; adopted there. Instead, an electric pump has been installed on a small punt, which works backwards and forwards across the baths in lines parallel to the shore. The inlet to the pump "is at the end of a 20ft rubber tube, of substantial diameter, the nozzle being covered by a wire mesh'to prevent, the ingress of objects big enough to do possible damage to the pump or block the discharge line. The line is of lengths of metal tubing bolted together with rubber joints which; give the flexibility needed, as the whole line, at present stretching across the width of the baths, floats on rafts which rock gently in the water.

This, morning the apparatus was working in' the corner at the shallow end of the baths. Two men in waders were wielding the intake pipe, poking its voracious nozzle into every nook . and cranny, with many a rattle in the pump to mark the passage through it of something more solid than mud. At . the- discharge end the water poured into the harbour in a steady stream, now clear as the intake happened-to be- lifted from the bottom, now suddenly blackening as it was thrust into the depths. FALSE TEETH AND-MONEY. Hundreds of cubic feet of mud will be taken* from • the floor of the baths before the job is done. The layer varies in. depth from a few inches near the; centre to as much as two .feet at the edges under the staging, and many and varied are the articles that are embedded in it. Money there must be in plenty, from the humble penny to that almost forgotten symbol of pre-depression days, the sovereign. And who knows, in those thirty years, how. many sets of false teeth, fountain pens, pocket knives, and other small objects have been dropped into the water through the gaps in the staging? When the pumping was first commenced an attempt was made to catch the solids by hanging a wire mesh basket over the outlet, but such is the volume and thickness of the mud discharged, that the scheme^was considered impracticable because oiPthe bas,ket becoming clogged and filling up. Now the .treasure trove sucked in goes straight into the depths of the harbour. Among ttie larger articles recovered was a bucket. The. large stones which constitute the original bed of the baths have been uncovered by the suction pump. These will not be touched for they form a solid and clean bottom^ When the baths were constructed, hundreds of tons of sand were deposited on top of the stones, and efforts are being made to prevent this from going over the sea wall with the rest of "the material. Long-handled spades are- used to scrape.the seaweed and barnacles .from the- concrete walls. To prevent the intake pipe from becoming blocked, the seaweed is taken out of the baths with rakes. , When, the pump is brought to work on the deeper end of the baths the services of a diver will be required to guide the nozzle into the • material to be shifted. This work will not be easy, for the water here is well over twelve feet deep at high tide. NON-PAYING PATRONS. It is not generally known that'the baths harbour, a number of fish of all -descriptions and sizes. In one of the dressing sheds this morning were a number of small kahawai and mullet neatly arranged in rows. The fish were caught in. a small-meshed net which had been set overnight. Other fish in the baths include moki, some of which appear* to weigh up to six pounds, spotties, and kelp, a fish something similar to a butlerfish but not so palatable. The large moki, which i swim about under the staging quite -unconcernedly, no doubt entered the baths through the barred water inlet when they were very young. As they •grew bigger they became trapped. It is possible, of course, that some of the fish were washed over the sea wall during heavy weather. It may be recalled that some years ago a huge octopus entered the baths this way. ■It was seen by some swimmers, and considerable difficulty was experienced in "killing it. Last summer swimmers found it very disconcerting when they bumped into or brushed the finny inhabitants of the baths while disporting themselves. There are numerous species of shellfish, including oysters, clinging to the concrete walls of the baths.

A week or two ago a regular patron of the baths set a net in the harbour just outside the sea wall of the baths. Any small fish that were caught in the net overnight only served to provide breakfast (or a late supper) for a five-foot shark, which also had found its way into the net. Th net was for small fish only, and the shark managed to tegr it and escape as it was being hauled in. '