SWIMMERS AND SURFERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 279, 24 November 1937, Page 4

SWIMMERS AND SURFERS

NOTES FROM BATHS AND BEACHES Though the framing of a programme for the “Learn-to-Swim” Week appears to be holding the centre of the stage at present, swimmers are also preparing for the first of the season’s carnivals, to be held by the Gonville Club.

Judging by the fact that this week clashes with several important exami- 1 nations, the secondary schools will be 1 unable to provide as much assistance 1 as might otherwise have been expected. • * * * , A bright feature of the seasons i outlook for swimming is the keen in- < terest being displayed in the majority 1 of the schools in the district. Several < headmasters have recently been busily 1 engaged campaigning for 100 per cent. < of swimmers before the school year < ends. That means that no boy oi girl leaving school next month is likely to be a non-swimmer. A shortage of instructors is likely to ; make itself evident during prepara- < tions for the "Learn-to-Swim” cam- . paign, and no doubt the centre would appreciate offers of assistance from ’ any member of the general public in- ; terested in fostering swimming. Many club members whose services will be ; available for the evening session, from ] 6 to 7 p.m., will'not be able to assist < during the morning or afternoon ses- 1 .sions. !

The "Learn-to-Swim” Week will be held in the week commencing December 6, so next Monday week will see the campaign launched in WanganuJ. If the effort on the part of these schools is carried still further during the national campaign, a vast amount of good will have been done, and the leeway which resulted from the epidemic restrictions last season will have been overtaken. It must be most encouraging to the centre to find such enthusiastic support forthcoming In the schools. The Otago Centre was the first in the Dominion to hold a "Learn-tu-Swim” Week regularly, and the cooperation of the City Council has always been forthcoming, but nevet to a greater extent than this year, when the council generously granted free admission to all learners. The Wanganui City Council has also displayed interest in the movement, and no doubt if similar concessions were sought by the local centre they would be forthcoming, provided the concessions were under responsible control.

The champion backstroke swimmer of New Zealand, P. E. Mathiesoi., formerly of Otago, who has arrived in Auckland from Wellington to serve with the police force, has enrolled as a member of the Eastern Suburbs Amateur Swimming and Life-saving Club. The club, in association with the Waitemata Club, brought Mathieson to Auckland from Dunedin last Easter for the contests in which he established Australian and New Zealand records. He will represent Eastern Suburbs at swimming, water-polo and surf life-saving. Mathieson has bad only five swims since leaving Dunedin some months ago, but now that he Is in Auckland and can train in a tepid pool, he will concentrate on regaining form, as he is regarded as certain to represent New Zealand at the British Empire Games in Sydney next February.