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181
We regret that we cannot recommend the acquirement
of this site, and we have therefore no further report to
make in connection with it.
We regard this matter entirely from a public standpoint,
and had we adopted any other course we should have been
sacrificing the public interests for the interests of a private
concern, and in so doing would have been acting contrary
to our sense of duty to the Ratepayers.
Our reasons for recommending the Birkbeck site, and
for not supporting the Victoria Baths proposal have already
been stated, and are as follows:—
We believe that the position of the Birkbeck site is
one that will supply the needs of a very large and populous
portion of the Parish left untouched by the Victoria Baths.
We further feel that the Victoria Baths supply a
portion of the Parish which the Birkbeck site would not
supply, and the fact that they are largely used by swimming
clubs, and that, in all probability, the first-class
private bathing would be but little, if at all, interfered
with, would prevent the present trading account being
seriously affected by an establishment in another portion of
the Parish.
By our proposal, therefore, a second Establishment
would be brought into existence, so that by the expenditure
of a smaller sum of money than would be required to purchase
and adapt the Victoria Baths, two Establishments
would be secured to the Parish instead of one, and this we
consider to be a decided gain.