LIFE SAVING SOCIETY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29010, 26 September 1959, Page 15

LIFE SAVING SOCIETY

Tributes Paid To Mr J. Breward

Tribute to the work of the secretary of the New Zealand Council of the Royal Life Saving Society for the last 21 years, Mr J, Breward, of Christchurch, is paid in the annual report of the council to be presented at the society’s annual meeting in Wellington on October 3. Mr Breward is also well known in Christchurch as a professional swimming coach. Mr Breward is relinquishing his position of secretary to the council this year. “During his period in office he has seen award totals grow from 6800 when breaststroke certificates were most popular, to the last year’s record of 16,900. and has had a corresponding increase in the amount of work expected of him. Only in the very last year of his service did he seek secretarial assistance, carrying on the work at the ever greater expense of his personal leisure time,” says the report. “For many years Mr Breward saw the society assisted financially by the Government to the extent of a £lOO yearly grant. After much personal effort and the preparation of an excellent plan for branch expenditure, the annual grant was increased to £2OOO. It is to his credit that practically no amendments to his plans have been necessary in the three years it has been in operation.” Mr Breward was always aware of the tremendous volume of work that school teachers were relied upon to do in preparing candidates for Royal Life Saving Society’s Awards, says the report, and has invariably seen that all encouragement was given to those who did the work. “Proof that his knowledge ts soundly based lies in the fact that he has on more than a dozen occasions successfully applied artificial respiration both on the beaches and at the Municipal Pool, where he spends many hours in his capacity as a swimming tutor. “Since gaining his first Royal Life Saving Society Award in 1915, Mr Breward’s interest in the work has grown and his increasing ability has been recorded by awards gained up to the diploma examination, which he successfully passed in 1923.” says the report. “For his active work with the Canterbury brancn and four years as secretary oi the council, he was awarded the recognition badge in 1941, and in 1950, the central executive showed its appreciation of his work by adding the service cross to his awards.”