THE SALTWATER BATH BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1902, 19 February 1870, Page 4

THE SALTWATER BATH BILL.

The Council, we see, has passed the Auckland Saltwater Bath Company's Act, and we observe that the Superintendent has referred the Act for His Excellency the Governor's assent. The public, therefore, who are largely interested in the maintenance of these public baths may, we suppose, consider the matter settled, as there can exist no possible reason why the Governor's assent should be withheld, while, on the contrary, there are very many reasons why it should be given. To veto the Act would simply be to deprive the citizens of Auckland in another eighteen inonthe or two years of the possibility of bathing anywhere between Official and Freeman's Bays, for it is not likely that any other company would erect baths with the certain knowledge that the undertaking would prove, commercially, a failure, much less that the present company, could it procure a site, would re-erect them elsewhere. As it is, a large sum lias beeu sunk in the erection of those baths, the directors are still some £500 in debt, and not one penny of interest has the concern paid since it was started some four or five years ago. ]V T or are the baths alone a public convenience. They are something more. They are a very useful institution for the "teaching and practise of the art of swimming, a most useful and necessary accomplishment in a maritime country such as New Zealand. As to the reason urged against the extension of the lease, that the site is wanted for wharfage purposes, we really cannot see its ibret). The wharf sites in the harbour :ire not yet all so taken up that tho space occupied on the breakwater by the Saltwater Baths will be missed. We cannot see why so strong an opposition should have been urged a<,'iii r ast the Bath Company by a few members in the Council, and we are quite sure that to gratify the wishes of a few his Excellency will not bo induced to iuflict a very serious injury upon the hundreds who use these baths during the greater portion of the year. ______________„