WOODHAUGH BATH.

Evening Star, Issue 11677, 8 February 1902, Page 3

WOODHAUGH BATH.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Now that our City Council have fairly discussed he question of forming the old dam in ihe Woodhaugh Gardens into a swimming bath for the north end boys, it will not be amiss on my part to write a. few; words in favor of what so much has been written against. Cr Braithwaile says that “when he visited the spot he saw nothing but a mud pool.” Well, 1 would like to take him buck thirty-five years—the time I have known him—and ask him what he saw when he looked at the place where the block of buildings now stands between Crawford and Vogel streets. His reply would be “ nothing but a mud bole.” Cr (iirroll and he should remember that a place is not what it is, but what it can be converted into. Cr Park and others will remember in their young days what a glorious thing it was to strip off in the bush on a hot summer’s day and enjoy themselves for an hour by jumping into a pool in the Wakari, the” Leith, or the Silverstream. It is nob % question of cleanliness—they can get that at home —although if our councillors will go as far as the first Woodhaugh Bridge, where the water for the dam is turned off, they will sec-that the quality of the water is all that is to be desired.

But, sir, the most important question is teaching our boys, and young men the noble art of swimming, in order that they may be able, should the occasion arise, to save.not only their own life, but the lives of others. The lamentable array of bathing fatalities this summer warrants us in taking a keener interest in this subject than we have hitherto done, and I maintain that this bathing place would prove an inestimable boon to the youth and school children of the north end, as Black Jack Point is just a “ leetle ” to far, even if it is to get a swim, and the quality of the water is not what it ought to be. —I am, etc., Alex. Black. February 8.