IN HEART OF A CITY

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 7 November 1933, Page 2

IN HEART OF A CITY

. GIRLS’ SUN-BATHING CLUB. ROOF GARDEN SOLARIUM. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 5. The roof of Hereford Court in Hereford Street. A high parapet round it screening off the breeze, and tho warm sun beating down. Deck chairs, beach chairs and light couches all about. A stall for soft drinks and cigarettes and sweets near the door, and a radio set bringing in light music standing on the counter of the stall. And sitting on the chaira and reclining on the couches—girls, about a dozen of them. One in a bathing suit, holding a glass of raspberryado in one hand and reading a magazine she held ini the other. Several others eating lunches laid out on the little tables. Four or five stretched full length on the couches, just lazing in the sun. On the tables asli trays, and on one a pack of playing cards, but no one smoking or play ing just at the moment. Everybody about looked contentedly comfortable and lazy. A reporter found his way to tue headquarters of the Sunshine Club yesterday and all that is something of what he saw . Mrs M. AloKenzie, who has established the roof-garden sunbathing club for business girls was quite willing to tell the reporter all about it. “We want the girls to know,” said she. “Some of the girls are here now, but we have only just started this idea, and not many have joined up yet.” “Lots of girls like sun-bathing, It’s pleasant and it’s healthy,”, said Airs AlcKenzie. “But what chance do they get? The beaches are.a long way from here. The business girls can’t go to the beach in their lunch-hour and many can’t go after work. “We thought of making a sun-bath-ing club for business: girls and this is it. They can come up hero in their lunch-time, eat their lunches here, sit or lie about in the sun, and —well there you are.” The reporter wanted to know the dress for this sun-bath treatment. “Weil, they can wear what they like,” said the manageress. “We have a changing-room here,, and the girls can change into swimming togs or anything and just lie about in the sun till they have to go back to work.”. Alost of the girls on the premises yesterday were in summer frocks, though, some in costumes had removed the costume coat and hat, and sat in the warm sun thus. “Some .girls may just like to sit in the sun; well, they can do that if they like,” said Mrs AlcKenzie. The roof garden would bo open from ten o’clock each morning. Mrs AlcKenzie emphasised that the idea was not a stunt or a fad. The club was simply a place where girls j who wished to have some sort of priv- ! acy while they ate their lunches or sun-bathed, or both, could do so. There would be constant supervision and proper control. Sun-bathing was very healthy. It was supported by doctors everywhere. A little at a time was the best way to take it, and this club wasi providing just that. Later, she expected, girls would become regular habitues of the sun-bathing club on the roof garden, and in the height of summer they would be able to sun-bathe there till six o’clock or later. Christchurch had never had such a thing before, so far as shs knew, and she doubted if there had been an open sun-bathing club in a heart of a business area anywhero in the country. The club was just to fill the need expressed by many girls for some quiet and! convenient spot where they could enjoy their sun-bathing, or at any rate eat their lunches \n the sunshine without doing it in public. . The Sunshine Club is tho name of it. There are enough devoteesi now to ensure that it will go on. So Christchurch has a solarium for business girls in one of its busiest streets.