SAFETY ON BEACHES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21349, 25 November 1932, Page 9

SAFETY ON BEACHES

PATROL AT TAKAPUNA

SUPERVISION ON SUNDAYS

ENCOURAGING CAUTIOUSNESS

Official patrol o! Takapuna Beach from 10 a,.m. to 5 p.m. every Sunday has been instituted by the Takapuna Surf LifeSaving Club. It is hoped that the three other Auckland life-saving clubs will adopt a similar system of regular patrols. The Takapuna Club has three life-saving reel stations on the beach, which means that the equipment is always within easy reach of the patrols.

Six patrols varying in strength from four to six members are on duty on alternate week-ends. The club owns a surfpatrol boat which, when conditions warrant it, will cruise up and down just outside the line of breakers. This double safeguard should ensure that no bathers get into serious difficulties. ''Our aim is to make Takapuna Beach the safest bathing beach in Auckland," said Mr. S. V. Higgins, club captain of the Takapuna Surf Life-Saving Club, yesterday. "Hitherto the watch over the beach has been somewhat haphazard, and this new idea will enable the work to be done more efficiently and yet allow greater freedom for surfmen. The Royal Life-Saving Society realises this need of constant beach supervision, and when its life guard corps comes into full operation it will be fulfilling a real service on our popular beaches.

"The patrol system is in operation in Southern centres, and is the only satisfactory method of safeguarding bathers when crowds throng the beaches," continued Mr. Higgins. Club members were divided into six patrols and were officially on duty every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. So that members would not find their voluntary service irksome in very hot weather, patrols were allocated definite duty periods. The first was from 10 a.m. to 12.15 p.m., another patrol taking over until 2.30 p.m., with the last patrol operating from them until 5 p.m. This was not the only service which the club undertook, as it was intended that "what the St. John Ambulance was to the streets the surf clubs should be to the beaches," consequently first-aid as well as the teaching of swimming were included in the club's activities. "The club," continued Mr. Higgins, "is most fortunate in having a very capable swimming instructor, Mr. G. Cameron, whose efforts in this direction are well known in the borough. The encouraging of swimming was not'left to the instructor alone, and occasionally all members were to be seen in the water instructing children. A difficulty the club had experienced was in trying to deter bathers swimming out long distances from the shore. It is contended -that they should be able to obtain sufficient exercise by swimming along the beach, which is nearly a mile in length, and not cause anxiety to others. "The club intends taking this matter up through the Swimming Centre, as it applies universally, in an effort to minimise the risk to swimmers themselves as well as to their would-be rescuers," Mr. Higgins added.