BEACH COSTUMES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 30 December 1926, Page 6

BEACH COSTUMES.

MELBOURNE CONTROVERSY. NECK-TO-ICNEE SUITS. SYDNEY, December 12. A controversy is raging in Melbourne regarding the drastic befell regulations adopted by various suburban councils with jurisdiction round the foreshores of Hobson’s Bay. While the regulations have aroused regular patrons of the beach, most of them estimable citizens, to a state bordering upon petty rebellion, the “war” has provided much amusement for the ligh-ter-minded. With the advent of every summer, there is always a move by the worthy councillors to adopt the stand of guardians of beach purity and modesty, and to lessen the length of limb to be exposed to the sun’s warmth. They do it by ordering bathers to bo clothed in neek-to-knee costumes. Loitering on the beach in costumes is forbidden, and thus the would-be-sun-baker is prevented from enjoying the delicious sensation of tho sun putting a healthy casing of brown on shoulders, legs and arms. There are humorous sidelights in Melbourne’s beach war, which the majority of Sydney folk, always supremely contemptuous of the southern city regard as typifying the spirit of Melbourne, which they look upon, not ■so much as the Victorian capital, as the mid-Victorian capital. Eor instance, someone wanted a. definition of a ueck-to-kneo costume. After' interviewing sundry town clerks and other officials or bumbledom, ho came to tho conclusion that il twas something rhat clothed tho limbs from the neck, but not necessarily to the top of tho neck, to the top of tho calf. Then, persevering man, he searched the Melbourno shops to find tho neck-to-knee costume as prescribed, and succeeded—the city’s modern emporiums dug from their stacks of natty one-piecO abbreviated costumes ono that really did reach from neck to knee. Strongly smelling of camphor, the owner of the shop confessed that it had. been a “left-over” for almost two decades.

Tho strange part of Melbourne's beach war is that nobody seems to want neck-to-kneo costumes. Officials of life-saving clubs describe them as I “suicide costumes,” because not only, are they a source of ineonvouicnce and 1 discomfort to tho wearer, but are a positive danger, as many of the costumes becoino neck-to-ankle costumes j in tho water, and so hamper the movements of poor swimmers. Even such organisations as the Housewives’ Association and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union havo joined in the wide protests against tho official ban oil onepiece costumes, though the union, it in; true, supjKirts the edict against pro-j | misc-uous sun-bathing. Ono newspaper, is conducting a particularly intenso | campaign against the council’s order, : which it classes as an absurdity 20 years 1 dear!. This paper is responsible for tho seritous statement that bathing is ; rapidly becoming less popular in_ Mel-i bourno on account of tho ridiculous j hampering of beach patrons. _ j Hero in Sydney more freedom is at-j lowed bathers. One-piece costumes nro j the rule and two-piece suits pre-date the ■ war. Competent observers believe that behaviour on our beaches has not suffered because costumes end above tho middio of tho thigh, have deep V-shaped necks, and allow freedom to use The shoulders by having only shoulder straps. Still," even Sydney has its little

troubles, for at Cronulla shorts must be worn by tho men and kimonos i: " women when on tho beach, while at Manly there is a regulation, honoured onlv in tho breach, forbidding sunbathing. That regulation came into force, and was openly defied, and a tier several futile prosecutions the worthy city fathers decided to wink tho other eye, and thus maintain the beach’s prosperity. But no beach has fiad the temerity To follow Melbourne suburbs’ lead and order twopiece neck-io-knee costumes.