THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1888.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8542, 23 November 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1888.

With which are incorporated the Wellhigtui Independent, ettabliahed 1545. and the Nev Zealander .

During the coming summer everybody in Wellington who desires the healthful indulgence of sea-bathing must perforce make a long and weary pilgrimage to a remote eastern corner of this widely-spread city. When he or she arrives at the approach to Oriental Bay some very fair baths will be found. But nowhere else in this city of 30,000 inhabitants, the metropolis and chief seaport of New Zealand, will this essential sanitary appliance be discovered. All the 30,000 people, if they want sea-bathing, must be content to have it in that one set of baths. Happily they do not all want to bathe at one time, otherwise the baths in question would afford somewhat scant accommodation. But even allowing a very lame discount on the number of probable bathers, it must be manifest to all who give the matter a ' moment’s thought that . the Te Aro baths do not and cannot constitute anything like an adequate,provision for this important requirement of a large seaside, town. Nor can the long distance' which the majority of the citizens must travel before they can obtain the benefit of the baths be ignored in appraising their usefulness. Clearly this city ought to have at least two 1 sets of sea baths, one at each end of its harbour frontage. Last summer; Wellington was much better deed has been for twelve years past—than the city is now or will be in the approaching summer. Last year we had the Thorndon baths - now we have not. It is true they had for several years been less and less satisfactory in their condition, but still they were baths of a sort, and now they are not baths of any sort, and those of Te Aro are left alone in their glory. It is now about thirteen years since .the defunct Thorndon baths were established. The foreshore then belonged to the Provincial Government, which had not at that date been abolished. But one of the last acts of that departed government was to grant to a joint stock company—founded mainly, we believe, by Mr James Wallace, the; present able manager of the Wellington and Mahawatu Railway, and one of the most skilful and energetic promoters of that line—a 42 years’ leas© of a certain area on the foreshore near Pipitea Point, and one of the last ordinances passed by the Wellington Provincial Council, indeed the last of all, if wo recollect aright, was that ratifying tbislease. The Thorndon Baths Company went to work 5 vigorously, and put up a structure which, although it was not equal to present requirements, came very fairly up to those of thirteen years ago. The Wellington of 1875 was a place somewhat different from the Wellington of--1888. The new baths were well managed and became deservedly popular. But they were not destined to a very lengthened career. Their first blow came from the hands of the General Government. Three or four yearsbackan arrangement was made between the Government and the Welliugton-Manawatu Railway Company, by which the former were to reclaim a piece of land, filling up the recessed, angle of sea which lay between the old Thorndon reclamation and the Manawatu Company’s new reclamation, in order to divert the Masterton Railway seaward and avoid a double crossing of the

other line. The improvement to the city exit of the Masterton railway was great, but this improvement was made at the cost of the Thorndon baths, which lay just in that recessed angle of sea that the reclamation for railway purposes has partly filled up. The land was taken from the Bath Company by proclamation under the Public Works Act, and the space was then reclaimed. The effect of this alteration in the site was twofold. In the first place, instead of there being a wide space of clearwater between the shore and the baths giving free circulation of water without material impurity, the retain-ine-wall of the new reclamation came nearlv up to the baths, and speedily established a process of silting up, which has gone on ever since. Secondly, a large sewer which runs into the harbour a little south o f the baths, and the discharge from which has been rapidly increasing in foulness with the growth of tho Thorndon population, has, since the reclamation, been a serious nuisance so far as the baths are concerned. Whenever a southerly wind blows the effluent sewage, instead of passing outside the bathing enclosure, has been driven right through it, rendering the water disgustingly impure. Thus, even had no other causes intervened to prevent the continued use of the Thqrndon baths, the proximity of this drain in these altered conditions would have been a grave drawback. But the doomed baths received their final blow —in a double sense—from the great southerly storm of last autumn, which wrecked the Hutt railway. The destructive tempest simply knocked the baths all to pieces, and as it was not worth while to go to the heavy expense of restoration, the site being so completely spoiled, the baths have remained ever since a melancholy wreck unavailable for use.

Now the question arises :—What is best to be done in these circumstances? , Baths at Thorndon are clearly a public necessity that should be provided by the municipal authorities. They ought to be on a scale which to a private company might seem to involve too hazardous a speculation, and should have fresh-water baths—hot, cold, and shower—appended, so as to render the whole throroughly complete. In our opinion the City Council ought at once to take this matter in hand with all possible energy. It would be quite practicable to extinguish on equitable terms such rights as the Thorndon Baths Company may possess, and so far as we can judge at present this would seem to be a preferable course to leaving the undertaking again to private enterprise. A new site unquestionably would have to be selected, but this could probably be secured to the northward of the reclaimed land, clear of all sewers and sheltered from the eoutheily gales and sea. The choice of a precise site is, however, a matter of detail. The present pressing question is, whether anything at all is to be done to secure once more the benefit of sea-bathing for the northern half of the city, and, if so, what? It appeared to us desirable that, as a first step, and to clear the ground at starting, a succinct statement should be made of the history, and present position of what were till lately the Tborndonbaths. The public and the Council have now the whole case before them, and we hope that prompt practical action will be taken. It must surely be needless that we should say anything as to the great sanitary benefit of sea-bathing being readily accessible to all the residents in a populous, and, in some parts, crowded city.) That we may reasonably assume is admitted on all hands. But what is now wanted is a-well-thought-out practical scheme which shall secure for the citizens this benefit at a moderate cost and without imposing additional burdens on the municipal revenues. With the excellent Council this city now has such a.scbeme ought readily to be devised Or the Mayor-elect might well signalise his mayoralty by bringing forward a good plan for public baths. The present Mayor, Mr Samuel - Brown, has made his term of office memorable by introducing electric lighting and the Destructor. May we suggest to Mr Duthie that he should distinguish his first Wellington mayoralty by associating it with the introduction of city baths ? !