SCHOOL BATHS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 90, 19 May 1916, Page 5

SCHOOL BATHS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The drowning fatalities of the past months in various parts of the Dominion give reason for one to think that an education which does not include swimming is lacking in an essential branch. I think I am safe in saying that if every boy and girl were taught the principles of life-saving many lives would be saved which are now lost. A gentleman who is an expert swimmer and also a competent instructor informed me that in the district in which he lives he saw nine or 10 youths bathing in a river, and not one was able to swim! As for the girls ill that district, I don't suppose any within a radius of many miles has ever been in water outside of the household bath. There is absolutely no valid reason why the boys and girls should not be taught swimming. "Mrs Grundy" is responsible for the fact that very, very few women can swim. Dear, good, conservative, nar-row-minded old-Mrs Grumly, who rather than let her girls be seen in bathing ! suits prevents tliem from learning ono of the most useful and healthy accomplishments, and incidentally lets them run the risk of an untimely death by drowning. Then there is the mother who will not let her boy learn to swim. He may catch a cold, she thinks. There are more colds and ills caught out of the water than in it as a matter of fact, but she does not think so. Nevertheless the main reason why the majority of young J men and boys are deficient in the nata- t torial art is the want of instruction and j opportunity. This should be rectified. Every school of any size should have a ' swimming bath, just as it has its gymnasium. Every schoolboy and school- ' I girl should be compelled to learn just as their attendance at school is compulsory, the only exemptions being those who can produce medical certificates to show that bathing would be detrimental to 1 their health. The statistics of the past ; year or so show a very large number of ; deaths due to drowning, and the nation j can ill afford the sacrifice of these young 1 lives. Now let the local school com- j mittee see what it can do. At Christ- j church, Dunedin and many other towns there are schools not as large as Balclutha with baths. There is an old proverb, Cleanliness is next to Godliness,'' too. In short, common sense tells anybody that swimming is a useful and to enable boys and birls to swim | baths and capable teachers are neces- . sary.— I ain, etc., , I AN OLD SWIMMER. Balclutha, May 15, 1916.