TEPID BATHS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 287, 3 December 1937, Page 3

TEPID BATHS

NEED IN HAMILTON SWIMMING INSTRUCTION Commenting upon the serious lack of swimming ability among Hamilton school children, Mr. E. H. Grocott, secretary of the Hamilton branch of the National Committee of Swimming and Life Saving, stated last week that there was a great need for tepid baths in Hamilton. Preliminary investigations to the "Learn to Swim Week” had revealed a very unsatisfactory position in the schools so far as swimming ability was concerned. Applications were called for by the committee from children from Standard 111 upwards who required swimming tuition. “Imagine our dismay,” said Mr. Grocott, “when on compiling our lists we discovered that a total of 661 children from eleven schools apparently were unable to swim, and were keenly seeking instruction from us. The number is far and away above our expectations, and it is really perplexing to us as to how any really efficient tuition for this huge number can be effected. “The executive,” he said, “hopes to use not only the municipal baths, but also four school baths. Even then the number of lessons per child will be too small to produce the results we had hoped for. It is our desire this year to be able to 'boast that in Hamilton at least 90 per cent, of the children from Standard 111. upwards can swim 25 yards. This will still be our objective, but the enormity of our task is easily judged.” Organisation Difficulty Mr. Grocott said the organisation of this tuition was difficult, as each day the services of ten adult supervisors were required, and they would be using over 100 secondary school students to carry out the work of individual coaching. Even then the task of organisation seemed almost impossible. “This appalling state of affairs in a town like Hamilton demands the attention not only of every parent but of every thoughtful citizen,” said Mr. Grocott. “It can be attributed primarily to the short swimming season enjoyed in this district, and to my mind most decidedly points to the need of tepid swimming baths. At present the swimming season lasts, in the average, only about eight weeks— January and February—but with tepid baths this period could be extended to cover at least six months of the year. It is surely time that both young and old were given this public institution that is expected in a town the size of Hamilton.”