THE NEW ZEALAND DEATH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 933, 17 January 1890, Page 29

THE NEW ZEALAND DEATH.

“ The New Zealand Death ” is always busy. This is a country of drowning, and every, week sees the debt of Nature paid that way. The

Colony is, as we pointed out the other day, reticulated with waterways of one kind or the other, and every man and woman, and every child that can use its arms and legs, ought to be. able to swim to be on equal terms with circumstances. For sooner or later : they , are sure to be brought into contact with water, many of them to be in peril by it. Again we urge the teaching of swimming to the State school children .wherever the teaching is practicable —and again we warn the City Council that as long as it abstains from taking steps to provide sea-baths for the city, every death from drowning will lie heavily at its door. It is merely shirking the question to say that the Council has no power to do anything. Co-operation with the Harbour Board would effect all that is wanted, and the two bodies ought to'work together in this very important matter. No oae is surprised to hear of death by drowning in the harbour now—indeed, surprise is all the other way : that there are so few deaths from the cause. For in the first place the proportion of swimmers to non-swimmers, among our young people, is, we believe, very small —the swimmers are the comparative exception. Poor Mitchell, who was drowned last Sunday, was evidently nob versed in the art of swimming, or he would not have sunk when he lost his hold of the boat. That the weather was unfit for yachting, that the boat was “a crank,” and that her crew were unskilful are no excuses

for the death. Young men are hazardous, will run risks, and it will be a bad day for the race when they are not and do not ; but they ought to be fortified against risk as much as possible. If all youths, who much favour aquatics here and elsewhere, were good swimmers, drowniT] risks would be substantially decreased. And as long as Wellington harbour is as it is, it will avoo youths - -v>en to sport upon its surface ; they

antt **•*- "*r always have cone, in auyffill £*>*.•> *■ ; and a very good tiling tlld’F Win ding they are tliirig for them, friOj pr.b> i guard SAtare of tlie risk they r -e &*airist.ifc aif rii'uch.as p'factreapm,.isndtii! dgltiti a" little kriovvledge is *?] dangerous in ddririecfcion With as | in its many forms. TB&fa if all, but the peril is intensified it times when greenhorns go afloat, . - fancy they know all about it. That they do learn by their own or others’ experience vve have no doubt, for if they did not thelis fatalities in this harbour alone would be simply appalling. But they do learn an scramble) after a fashion, through t rieiks that srirrotind them, and eoiilri flaie Out oil the other’side. Arid theyate none the worse for it either. Tlleir pluck and self-reliance is strengtheiied, their resource and presence of mind cultivated, and they are all the better for the training. Better, far better, that a life ortivo should be lost occasionally through misadventure than that the self-reliance and love of adventure of our youth should be tampered with by mistaken philanthropic attempts to ensure their safety. -the average Wellington youth knows very Aveil there is danger in the lovely harbour, and thati about half the so-termed pleasure boats of the port are unseaworthy dug-oiits: There are all sorts ancl conditions of things that float* arid there is not a boy in the city that would riot cheerfully and readily risk his life in any of them for the sake of “a paddle around. And against this Ave have not one word to say, providing that boy can swim well. That all sailing boats should carry life-buoys or belts we have urged on former occasions, and do so again. But beyond this >ve have nothing to suggest in Connection AVith pleasure-boats and yachts. WeAvmtld accord them the freest latitude and all the risk attending it. It is meet that youth should be brought face to face Avith danger occasionally—they make all the better men for it ; nothing is so degenerating as molly-coddling. But they ought to be trained a little to meet danger ; and a boatman who swims well is reasonably fortified.