BATHS MUST HAVE CLEANING PLANTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 328, 13 April 1928, Page 18

BATHS MUST HAVE CLEANING PLANTS

WHARVES AND SHIPS NOT ORAKEI OUTFALL CAUSE OF POLLUTION The real reason why it will be absolutely necessary to install filtration and purification plants in the city public baths was made known quite incidentally at the meeting of the City Council last evening. JT is that even if the Orakei sewage outfall was removed 50 miles away the harbour, especially in the vicinity of the baths, is so polluted from the large daily waterfront population, and the increasingly large number of ships that discharge unwanted refuse into the harbour, that either the baths have to have purification plants or close down. Another factor is that the number of harbour works and current controls have increased to such proportions that the harbour is not scoured out as it used to be. While this information has been kept secret by the City Council, the public was deluding itself with the idea that Orakei was the cause of all the trouble. As the result of the information placed before the council last evening it was decided to forward an application to the Loans Board for permission to take a poll to raise £7,500 to install filtration and purification plants at the present city baths. SEPARATE ISSUES In reply to a question, the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, said the issue on the poll for cleaning plants would be kept separate from that concerning the poll on the proposal to raise a loan for Point Chevalier Baths, the sum for which 'has now been increased to £22,500 to enable the inclusion of filtration and purification plants. A suggestion that the prices of admission will be increased to meet the extra costs will be considered by the council in due course. The analysts’ reports were not submitted to the council. Cr. L. A. Eady asked about them, and the only information he got was that the sample of water taken over the Orakei sewer gave the cleanest anal5 r sis, a statement which caused amusement. Cr. F. W. Brinsden said the doctors did not specially mention sewage.