SWIMMING

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 November 1929, Page 12

SWIMMING

SPORT IN THE WATER.

INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS. NEW ZEALAND EFFORTS. The New Zealand Amateur Shimming Association has made a concerted effort to have swimming introduced as a compulsory course at all schools and colleges. While there is no- denying that much remains to be accomplished before this worthy aim is attained, great headway has been made . It was as a result of a suggestion by the association that teachers are now permitted to substitute swimming for the ordinary physical exercises performed by the children in the playground.

To encourage swimming among school children, the association lias for some years past awarded certificates to those who have swum specified distances or have learned to swim. It is understood that about 16,000 certificates were issued last season. _ This means that since the inauguration of the scheme a few years ago 90,000 certificates, half of them learners , have been awarded. The l one great impediment to an even wider spread of the movement lias been the lack of facilities. "However, school swimming pools are springing up throughout the country each season, and the day does not seem distant when virtually every school will be able to offer students the opportunity to learn and practise swimming. LEARN-TO-SWIM week.

Although the association has made great efforts to spread the. gospel of swimming among school children, the appalling number of drowning fat-ali-

ties in the Dominion last summer and those which have occurred -to date thus season are sufficient evidence that a more comprehensive system of instruction is urgently required. By far the best scheme would be the organisation of xt Dominion-wide learn-to-swim campaign similar to that conducted throughout Victoria last season, as a result of which 30,000 learned the art of natation (says the “Auckland Star”).

Classes supervised by club members and volunteers who had previously attended a series of lectures on correct instructional methods were held wherever swimming could be safely indulged in. It would be impossible to estimate the number of lives preserved because of the campaign, hut there is no doubt that they would he many. Among the numerous benefits derived from the campaign were increased membership rolls for all clubs in the State, tripled attendances at carnivals, and wired facilities for swimming, as

is shown bv the number of new baths which have been erected. The Victorian campaign attracted, world-wide attention, inquiries particulars of the organisation worn being received from several governments, including the New Zealand Government. A leara-to-swim week, conducted by the Auckland Y.M.C.A. three or four years ago, was the means of teacbm f 500 girls to feel at home in the water, so that a national movement could not fail to be an unqualified success.