SUN-BATHING AT SUMNER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11000, 12 February 1914, Page 4

SUN-BATHING AT SUMNER.

The light penalty inflicted on the three High School boys by a Christchurch magistrate f° r exposing their heads and shoulder* and waists to the sun at Sumner indicates that his "Worship did not regard the offence as a, very heinous one. As a matter of fact it was not. Sun-bathing unattended by ittdeceJicy is a very innocent and healthy recreation, and the possessor of a win-browned body is usually not only a very enviable citizen, but a very

clean-minded ono as well. Thero aro many people, wo avo a wire, who regard Urn human I'ramo as a very obseono object. Their first instinct upon, seeing three I ealthy schoolboys reclining negligently in Ihe sand would be to gasp their indignation and summon I .'no nearest policeman. These curious persons should be advised on no account to go n-voyaging because more than half the world is elnd in nothing better than a loin cloth, and there are huge ureas of the earth's surface whoi'o clothing as we know it is regarded, as a more affectation. When the present King of England visited lfotonia on an historic, occasion the Maori tribes turned out in battle array stripped to the wnist, and in the abandon of their Imkns displayed quite an opulence of anatomy. We are not- aware that anyone amongst the thousands who witik'.smh! the spectacle sustained a shock to tho susceptibilities.

Queen Mary, who is regarded as a stickler for tho proprieties, oven to tho extent of burring the tango nnd the hobble skirt, viewed tho spectacle with perfect equanimity. In Koiuo wise people do as the Romans do, and the traveller abroad who waxed indignant at the spectacle of sartorial abandon to be witnessed, say, at Fiji, Samoa, Colombo, China, Japan, and a score of other places, would .bo regarded as a freak. Of course there must bo reason in all things, but tho seaside is a placo where the strict observances of etiquette and deportment aro agreoably relaxed by common consent. Jt may bo very repugnant to some persons to soo a #roup of schoolboys browning themselves in order to bo able to swank it on respectable terms with their seaside familiars, but for our part wo should regard the proceeding with a more lenient eye than wo are inclined to do the procession of tightly-clad, skirtmanacled, pedestal-heeled, women which parades through Cathedral Sqtsaro each and every day of the week!