THE PUBLIC BATHS ANOTHER MANINI.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 July 1911, Page 3

THE PUBLIC BATHS ANOTHER MANINI.

To the Editor. Sir, —T hesitate to join your correspondents of the Bath, but knowing that the question will again occupy the attention of the council on Monday next, T venture into the swim. * "When paying a gas bill last week, I enquired the state of the bath barometer from his Worship the Mayor, and of course "waded _ into tihe discussion. From printed ireports I learnt the size and cost or baths in Hawera. Woodville and Masterton, and their revejrue and expenditure. (HnWera showing, if T remember rightly, a credit balance for the year). From another source, lids Worship plied mo with information regarding the cost of the Carterton bath (under £oOD). "But," said T (thinking of cautious Peter, doubtful Donald, legal Charles, and "the other councillors) "what would they cost in Levin? "Not over £500," promptly replied his Worship. "We hare had plans which will provide very suitable baths for Levin for £500. Was all this data available for the council? Certainly it was! Now. Mr Editor, this information was given to me in a fifteen minutes' chat, audi with an hour's study the whole question of finance should be plain even to a dull and not over generouslyendowed brain. the groat stock cry of the bath opponents was and is "lack of information. Can these six councillors not spend an hour of their valuable time in order to make themselves proficient in this question ? Or So they leave to the Mayor the thinking part of the Sogramme, and ask to be spoon--3? Boiled down to a question and answer point of view, the case seems thus to me: . Is it advisable that Levin has niihlic baths say within the next five years? The majority of ratepayers Without doubt answer "Yes! Can we afford to pay in five years a id special rate when now a Jd rate would suffice? Can we, as a progressive borough, tell our youths and maidens to cycle to the Oliau (or go without) because the town can t back a £250 bill? I say, Mr Editor, that the least the six councillors should have done was to defer the question, but there was absolutely no justification for their throwing the motion out altogether. If on Monday night these same gentlemen hold to their past attitude, his "Worship should have no compunction in making the question a referendum to the ratepayers. —Yours, etc., PRO BONO PUBLICO, v> --