§ MR. RITCHIEasked the First Commissioner of Works, Whether any plan has been approved by him for carrying-out the objects of the deputation which lately waited upon him to ask for the extension of the facilities for bathing in Victoria Park to the evening?
LORD HENRY LENNOXSir, a deputation waited on me, which was a very influential one. It comprised the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the School Board, as well as the hon. Members for that district. They represented the urgent need which exists of an extension of the hours of bathing in Victoria Park, and instanced the fact that in the neighbourhood there were over 30,000 boys at school who were unable to bathe at the hours now allowed in the morning. Seeing that the privilege they asked is already allowed in the Serpentine, I visited the Park and found that the obstacles to this concession were not serious. I have, therefore, sanctioned arrangements as an experiment, by which bathing will on Thursday next up to the 30th of September be allowed in the large lake for the hour immediately preceding that which is fixed for the closing of the Park.