SCHOOL SWIMMING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13839, 26 February 1909, Page 4

SCHOOL SWIMMING.

It is to bo hoped that the weather will be line, to encourage ...the .assembling of a bis muster of schoolboys to take part in and witness the annual'swimniing competitions for schools, which take place to-morrow afternoon at the Century Baths. The value of swimming, as a healthful exercise, as an insurance against a too common kind of accidental death, as'an occasirtnal means of saving life, cannot be ton highly estimated. Timaru, Geraldine, and Waima'to with their artificial swimming baths, and the first-named with it- excellent sea beach; Temiika and other schools with available rivers, ought to turn out every bo,% —-and why not also every girl ?—able to swim by tiie time they obtain their certificate. There are about -000 schools in the dominion,y.vQt. -the Minister of Education stated > a. day or two ago that only 140. of them had applied for the recognition of' swimming classes. A very large number, probably :i large proportion, of the schools have no facilities for teaching this useful art, but 140 must be hut a small proportion of those .within easy reach of a stream or pool good enough to learn to swim it. It would not be amiss to require the teachers of the future to be able to swim; for if a man cannot swim himself, it would be impossible for him, to teach his boys how to swim, whereas a swimmer would in most cases, find it a hleasiire to do so.