Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1921. A CRYING NEED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 598, 11 January 1921, Page 2

Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1921. A CRYING NEED.

While it is the function of a newspaper to back up the activities of the local bodies in its district in every possible way, it is also its duty to suggest when such is for the the public good. It is our desire, therefore, to make a very strong suggestion to the Pukekohe Borough Council for earnest consideration by that body. That is the early erection of a public convenience in the town. Probably no town in the Dominion the size of Pukekohe is so badly off in this respect, and the matter is therefore, of the utmost importance. On market days particularly there is a large influx of shoppers from outside districts, and nothing is done to cater for them—particularly the women—-and this is not as it should be. We know one town in the Waikato where the local branch of the Farmers’ Union, on behalf of the wives and daughters of its members, voluntarily subscribed a substantial sum and handed it to the Borough Council as a subsidy to

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”

wards the erection of a ladies’ rest room. To-day that rest room is a handsome structure in rough cast, and contains mirrors, wash basins,, chairs and a table, and many a tired mother, with a baby in arms, has availed herself of its retreat. Are there not tired mothers, with children, visiting Pukekohe regularly to spend money ? Then they should bo considered and provided for. A ladies’ rest room, near the centre of the town, is not a luxury for a town like Pukekohe, but is a necessity, and a sane business proposition. But apart from the ladies, the men folk of this town arc very badly off. There is no convenience where they can wash after say, tinkering with a badly-behaved motor The average man likes to shop with clean hands, and the assurance that his tie is hot behind his car. Therefore, these rest rooms, conveniences, call them what you will, merely figure as business propositions, and by no stretch of imagination can they be classed as extravagances. We have made the foregoing suggesions in all seriousness, and express the desire that they be treated seriously by the powers that be. Rest rooms are needed badly in Pukekohe, and no town which omits them: for long can hope to be recognised as up-to-date, or endeavouring to-eater-for its visiting and buying public,