Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1938. INSTRUCTION IN SWIMMING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 38, 24 November 1938, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1938. INSTRUCTION IN SWIMMING.

The advent of warm weather inducing thousands of young people throughout the Dominion to seek bodily refreshment in the rivers and on the sea coast revives the subject of the necessity for systematic teaching of swijnming and of life-saving. If the heavy toll of human life taken by drowning in New Zealand were fully realised, preventive measures and organisations would receive much more support than they do at present. Public opinion is deeply concerned at the numbers killed on the roads, a concern reflected in the very costly official action taken to control traffic. In the last eleven years, however, for every four lives lost on the roads, three have been lost by drowning. It is probable that the drowning rate exceeds the traffic death rate in the summer months. Perhaps the fact that this toll has been going on throughout the history of the Dominion, whereas that exacted by the motor-car is of comparatively recent origin, combined with the fact that the circumstances of road collisions as a rule lend themselves to more graphic publicity than drownings, accounts for the significance of the figures of the latter class of fatality escaping notice. But the public is beginning to realise the seriousness of the position and will undoubtedly give unqualified approval to the scheme formulated by the Hon. W. E. Parry for a national campaign of instruction in swimming and life-saving. Unoei his regime as Minister of Internal Affairs the Government has done a great deal indirectly to encourage aquatic competence by subsidising the construction of school baths and also, more recently, by resuming the grant of a small capitation for teaching children to swim. This educative effort, is to be intensified, the Government providing £3OOO to facilitate the movement. This is a fine lead which should inspire all those whose assistance, either in financing the campaign or in imparting instruction, is sought. Education boards, school computtees and teachers can be counted upon for the co-operation asked from them by the Minister of Education, who is actively co-operating with his- colleague. A “learn-to-swim” week, held in Ashburton last December, was organised with enthusiasm though unfortunately the weather prevented that measure of success the promoters’ efforts deserved. There is every reason to anticipate similar enthusiasm this year, on the part of those competent to teach the uninitiated or inefficient in the County.