Child Drownins Feared

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31865, 18 December 1968, Page 20

Child Drownins Feared

A regrettable atti- I; tude towards learn- I to-swim campaigns in ; Auckland and Welling- i ton might endanger ! the lives of hundreds ! of children in the ap- : proaching holiday sea- I son, said the general ' secretary of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association (Mr A. W. Barrett) yesterday. In Auckland, the district water safety committee cancelled its annual leam-to-swim week because of a breakdown in the handling of publicity, while in Wellington public apathy stifled a water safety campaign from the start, he said. Mr Barrett said he was; appalled at the lack of re-i

(sponse to the campaign inp (Wellington. p “The indication is that Wei-:i lington parents do not care)] ■ if their children drown,” hep , said. j One of the country’s fore-11 most coaches, Mr M. A.li Doidge, of Auckland, came to 1 Wellington to conduct the i (campaign sessions. The pre- i jliminary meeting to the prac- i tical instruction drew only i three adults and five child- 1 ren; the learn-to-swim ses- i sions attracted about 10 more. In Auckland a dreadful i muddle in the organisation ; led to the learn-to-swim week i being cancelled. Both the district water safety committee ■ and the Auckland centre said they were unable to arrange the publicity, although funds ■ were available. The publicity officer for the centre (Mr C. Callan) said he was prepared to undertake the job, but the centre had not approached [him. ■ The fault lay chiefly with the committee, whose task it

was to handle publicity on such occasions. To this end it was granted 8300 by the national water safety comi mittee. In other cities in the country—Christchurch, Dunedin, ’ Invercargill, Hamilton, New Plymouth and Hastings—the response to the campaign was encouraging. But the attitude in Auckland and Wellington showed a callous disregard of the vital matters involved, said Mr Barrett. About 40 per cent of persons drowned in New Zealand each year were under 10. Mindful of this, the swimming association has been trying to encourage interest among parents, schools, children’s organisations and other like groups with water safety campaigns in all the centres. “This is a national problem and parents have a public duty, let alone the obvious duty to their own families, to cut back the shocking figures of child .drownings,” said Mr Barrett.