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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19748, 26 March 1926, Page 11

There is an art in asking for anything, a. I it was not the fault of the honorary secretary of the Canterbury Head Centre of the Royal Life-saving Society that he did not receive a donation from the Christchurch Tramway Board on Tuesday (states the Lyttelton Times) In a letter to the board he set up a good case to prove that, irrespective of the humanitarian side of the question, it wp clearly in the board's financial interests to give a donation. He si out his case in the following manner:— “As your board is doubtless aware, there are, annually in New Zealand, 150 lives lost through drowning. Many of these could have been saved had our methods been more widely known. Those drowninps must directly affect the income of your board, because if there are drownings on the beaches people will not visit them, and then the trams lose business. _ Also, by teachine swimming and life-saving we . eneourape people to visit the sea, which they do by travelling in the trams. So our society is deserving of yc .r assistance from a financial point of view, if not from a humanitarian one." A motion by the chairman (Mr W. J. Walter) that owing to the present state of the board’s finances it regretted it could not see its wav clear to give a donation was carried. However much members would like to give, the chairman continued, the board's finances could not stand it. Two members said they believed the matter was outside the functions of the hoard, and Mr E. W. White stated that, the life-saving society was in tl- same position as other bodies worthy r' a subscription. If the board gave to one, it would have to give to all.