SALT WATER SWIMMING BATHS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1905, Page 2

SALT WATER SWIMMING BATHS.

I (To the Editor.) Sir, —The City Council never did a wiser act, nor one that will confer a greater benefit upon a large section of the community, than when it carried a resolution proposing to introduce salt ■water into the public swimming baths. The present salt wa£er swimming baths are about as bad as they possibly can be. Not only are they situated in" a filthy part of the harbour, where the city sewerage flows freely into it, and which may be experienced" in the baths themselves, but they are constructed in such a way that at low water they are six ( feet deep, and at high water nearly nine feet, thus precluding the lovers of salt water bathing from taking advantage of them. The large majority of such are either beginners, or, at least, not expert swimmers, and, besides even expert swimmers require a resting place at times, for which there is no footing at the present, baths. Why these baths were not built on the graduated scale of from two to seven or eight feet is a mystery to mc. In all the cities in Australia such swimming baths ar« numerous, and Auckland is certainly far behind the times in this respect. Birkenhead and North Shore are ideal places for such baihs. and why the public spirit of the inhabitants has not erected them long ago is beyond comprehension. The present action of the City Council is. therefore, all the more commendable, and when they are often receiving nasty knocks from the public for their acts, it is pleasant, to be able to gave them credit for their laudable action on this occasion. It is-to be hoped.that they will at once push on with the work, and thus have salt water introduced into the public swimming baths before next summer, and so confer a great boon upon thousands of young and old in the community.—l am. etc., JAMES W. TAYLOR.