Taylor's Mistake Surf Club Has Given 50 Years' Service

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 15

Taylor's Mistake Surf Club Has Given 50 Years' Service

pOR the last 50 years the Taylor’s Mistake Surf Life-Saving Club has diligently patrolled its isolated but extremely popular little beach and it can now look back with pride on an unblemished record. Several hundred swimmers have been rescued from the surf there and there has not been one fatality in the patrolled area since its formation. This month the club, which claims the largest membership of any club in New Zealand and also the lowest subscription, officially celebrates its Golden Jubilee. It is not the first club in Canterbury to reach this milestone but its wonderful record of achievement would certainly be hard to beat. It faced great difficulties at the outset. The early settlers and surfing enthusiasts at Taylor’s Mistake had an abundance of water and very little else. Access was difficult, there was only a very small settlement, the First World War was in its second year and the type of members the club required were already at the front or preparing to go. But a small group of enthusiasts felt that the need was there and- so on Januuary 2, 1916, the Taylor’s Mistake Surf Life-Saving Club was formed. Its first president was Mr A. P. Osborne; its first captaiin Mr A. Barrett. Today, the first treasurer, Mr G. N. Maxell, and the first deputy Club

captain, Mr W. Shaw, are the only surviving foundation members. Mr Maxell has given 50 years of continuous sei-vice to the club and is at present its patron. A year and three weeks after this historic meeting, the first members had built and opened a surf pavilion on the beach. The club was off to a good start and was debt. free. It made enormous progress in the following years, reaching a membership of 416 by 1950. Then, on the morning of March 10, 1952, the club was again in the same position that its foundation members were in 1916. There was a beach but no pavilion. Overnight, fire had destroyed everything except a canvas canoe and two reels. This presented a challenge and gave new impetus to club life. Before the smoke had died away telephone calls were coming in offering money, goods and help. To cut a long story short, a new debt-free pavilion costing £4lll was officially opened on March 14, 1954. It still stands to-

day as a monument to the enthusiasm of its past and present members. The club now has 504 members, one of the best pavilions in the country, an unblemished patrol record and £lOOO in the bank. In competition, the club has been just as prominent and efficient as in other facets of the surf life-saving movement. Its first team was formed in 1916 and competed

in competitions in 1917. Since then the club has been a starter at practically every competition, local and national. Its teams and individual members have won at one time or another every trophy contested annually in Canterbury and have won or been placed in every possible national event.

This season the club won the Canterbury championship pennant for the third year in succession, a fitting reward for past endeavours in its jubilee year.

Its members have also contributed much to the organisation of the movement at provincial level. Mr G. G. Pratley, who won the New Zealand senior belt title in 1958, is at present the president of the Canterbury Surf Life-saving Association. He is also a vice-president of the club.

The jubilee celebrations will begin on March 18 with a gents’ evening in the Sandridge Hotel. The following evening a dinner and dance will take place at the Russley Hotel and on Sunday, March 20, a jubilee interclub surf carnival will be held.