BOYS WARNED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 8

BOYS WARNED

Canoeing On Bay Precautions Essential Acting on a suggestion by Captain H. C. White, the Timaru Harbourmaster, Mr G. R. Lee (secretary of the Timaru Harbour Board), informed the monthly meeting yesterday that he had forwarded a letter to each school in Timaru in connection with the very great danger incurred by boys canoeing in the harbour and bay. Mr Lee reported that in his letter he had stated that in all cases the following precautions should be taken: (a) The boy should be able to swim the full distance to shore. •b) The canoe should be fitted with float tins so that it will not sink if overturned. •c) A small kapoc life guard should be worn. They can be made at home. •d? No ropes in which the occupant can be entangled should exist. (e; The paddle should be secured to the canoe with a length of light rope. •f) Some supervision should be made from the shore. “Generally speaking, a great deal more care could be taken by boys about the harbour, and also when fishing or moving among railway trucks on the wharves,” continued Mr Lee in his letter. Moreover, considerable loss and inconvenience Is caused by small parts of gear being thrown into the water, and it Is significant that these losses increase during the holiday periods. "Please do not regard this letter as a complaint,” Mr Lee concluded, “but merely as a word of warning which may save some lad a bad fright, if nothing more. Arrangements for rescue will always take 30 minutes or more after the accident is seen, and precautions are only reasonable.”