FURTHER UNREST ABOUT THE REST ROOMS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 13, 30 October 1950, Page 5

FURTHER UNREST ABOUT THE REST ROOMS

The belief that the Whakatane County Council should revise its attitude of refusal to subsidise the wages of a fulltime attendant at the town rest rooms is held by the Otakiri Women’s Institute, who, in an interview with the Beacon on Friday, summarised the efforts

of the institute to have conditions improved.

She spoke of consultations with the borough health inspector, Mr A. R. Knights, and handed to this paper a letter received from the Minister of Health, Mr Watts, in July.

It reads:— “I have now received from my Department a report which confirms that conditions at the Ladies’ Rest Room, Whakatane, have been unsatisfactory. “I am informed that the Borough Council is most anxious to promote and retain some refinement about the Rest Room but has been thwarted somewhat in its efforts by lack of staff and abuses by users of the Rest Room.

“Some extra amenities are to be added to the room which should encourage users to be more tidy and the Town Clerk has given an assurance that his Council will make every endeavour to maintain the premises in a satisfactory condition.

' “I am sure that if the members of your Institute have any further suggestions for improving the state of the Ladies’ Rest Room, the Town Clerk will be happy to discuss the matter with them.” This letter from an Otakiri resident, signing 'herself “Pro-Bono Publico” further covers the subject:— I should like to make clear through your paper, the matter of the disgusting conditions of the Rest Room and the Women’s Institutes part in the complaints regarding same. The Institute of which I am a member, wrote last December to the local Health Inspector complaining of the condition of . the rooms. His reply was that he had inspected the rooms and found them “clean, though not attractive.” We heartily endorsed the latter sentiment but came to the conclusion his standard of cleanliness must be rather low.

Thus, having gained no satisfaction, we then wrote to the Minister of Health. He replied to the effect that investigations had been made and our reports were confirmed, and that the Council had been approached and efforts were to be made to improve conditions. Since then the Mayor has decided the Rest Rooms are all they should be and that nothing more need be said in the matter. I suggest that among other defects, the Mayor must have a very poor sense of smell. Whakatane draws her money from an’extremely large rural area. Is it too much to ask that country women should expect, at least, cleanliness from the public conveniences? If the present conditions are to exist then we should all be wise to emulate “K.E.G’s” wife and spend our money in Tauxanga or Rotorua, rather than risk the dangers of typhoid and other diseases in Whakatane. Whakatane could take a point (rather than a port) from Tauranga in this direction. Perhaps the successful Mayor will be more co-operative in this matter —he couldn’t be less so than the present one—and save the Institute taking the matter to higher officials once again.