Correct Bathing Attire

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 111, 4 February 1935, Page 11

Correct Bathing Attire

Sir, —As a New Zealander who has travelled extensively in the last two years I feel qualified to make some contribution to the discussion of the vexed question of swimming shorts raised once again, by “Kahuika” in this morning s “Dominion.” There appears to have been a conspiracy among Wellington retailers to keep this garment off the market, although this city was the first in New Zealand to popularise it. I was a little surprised to learn that “Kahuika’ was able to obtain shorts in Wellington •—certainly many large shops do not stock them, and they are rarely, if ever, displayed. Perhaps this is the reason for so many men adopting the practice — quite rightly objected to—of .wearing the lower portion of a two-piece costume, rolled down or cut-down costumes or even the quite unsuitable V’s. In Auckland, where scores are to be seen s wearing shorts on the beaches, every retail islhop displays properly designed and w’ell-cut swimming shorts ranging from the Australian-made garments priced at 25/- to 30/-, to the less pretentious but no less adequate Dominionmade garments selling at from 10/- to 15/-. Christchurch shops, too, have featured them, and one retailer claimed to have sold more shorts this season than full-length costumes. The same retailer expressed the opinion that before long the former would have completely displaced the latter. . ■ Now for the practice in other countries. At no beach or bathing pool in America or Europe are shorts banned. There it is the rare exception to find a man wearing a full-length costume. Conservative Old England lias been one of the last to follow this fashion, but. now shorts are worn by men at the majority of English watering-places and there there has been no protest The fashion has become very popular in Australia, and I understand there has been an outcry against the proposed ordinance banning shorts from New South Wales beaches. Any government or local authority that shows itself so out of touch with the trend of public opinion as has that of New South Wales deserves to lose —as it will without the least shadow of doubt—the sympathy and support of a large number of the younger generation. Personally, I believe there are very few persons who find offensive the exposure of the male torso on our beaches. Sooner or later the accepted fashion in other countries will become the accepted fashion in New Zealand, and the Wellington municipal authorities are to be congratulated on their refusal to resist the advance of modern ideas, a tendency, that one had been apt to regard as inevitable in the majority of our mid-Victorian administrators. —I am, etc.. G.T. Christchurch, January 31.