LEARN TO SWIM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 169, 20 July 1939, Page 3

LEARN TO SWIM

VALUABLE CAMPAIGN ASSISTANCE OF GOVERNMENT MR. J. B. COTTERILL’S REPORT Appreciation of the action of the Government in making £3OOO availab!” to th- swimming authorities to assist in conducting th? national learn-to-swim campaign was expressed by Mr. J. B. Cott*, rill, M.P. for Wanganui, in ,i recent speech in the House of Parliament. ’*Succ?ssi\<' Government ,’’ he said, ■'have recognised th? value of swimming. and in the past nave promised io do something in the matter, but apart from the usual giants that were, made Io the New Zealand Swimming Association for educational purposes—and these grants by the way ceaseu during Ihe depression nothing definite was done until the Minister of Internal Affairs lasi year made this sum of £3OOO available. With that money, the swimming authorities con-j duded an intensive campaign on a na- | lional basis such as has never been attempted before; they were able to give sufficient publicity to their campaign, and to arrange for thesix most prominent swimming coaches in the Dominion to tour the country and meet those people who were prepared to give voluntary instruction in swimming and coach them in the operation of a uniform system of instruction that had been adopted by those coaches as a result of their long experience. In that way, we were able to adopt a simplified form, so that taking an intelligent school child it is possible to teach that child to swim from 12 to 15 yards within half an hour. That has been done in a very large number of cases during the past summer. Unfortunately th? season itself was not a good one it was only during the months of February and March that any intensive work could be done. We had this uniformity of teaching and. in addition, an instructional film was made in Auckland of which 25 copies were distributed throughout New Zealand and shown extensively to school children. "I do not know what the actual re- , suits were for the whole of the Do-j minion, but I can give an idea of what ; was accomplished in the Wanganui i district. As I say, the season was not | a good one and the cold weather in i January precluded any instructional work being given, because a child who is unable to swim always has a certain amount of wafer-fear and it io practically impossible to teach them lo swim in cold water, because the sudden immersion in cold water only increases their water-fear. But in Ihe Wanganui district, in two months, 600 children learnt to swim across the bath, and many of them afterwards svam longer distances up to 100 yards. The Wanganui Swimming Centre -and 1 bring this to the notice of the Minister of Internal Affairs because I think it is important—employed a man who was one of the physical instructors in the schools. He had been i trenched by the previous Government, but he was a man of great ability, although he was compelled to spend sew ral years on relief work in Wanganui. The Wanganui Swimming Centre has employed b.im now for two seasons under subsidy from the Labour D-partment. In the 1937-38 season he was employed for something like lb weeks on a subsidy of £2 5.s and the centre made his \vag?s up to £5 per week. He was used extensively in giving instruction not only in the city schools of Wanganui, but also in the country districts. In that season he himself was responsible for more than 600 children learning to swim. We employed him agahi last season, and for the 16 weeks I think his total figures were 247. Now. if this man had only been responsible for teaching a 1 .- ri people to swim during the sixteen weeks he was employed, then the money spent on his wages would have been money well .spent. “In teaching children to swim, one i.- not only giving them recreation ot th? finest possible kind, and there is recreation that tends to develop on: more physically, but one is also giving them insurance against dealt! by drowning; because a proficient immer—one who can propel himself in the water and breathe as a wateranimal is thereby insured against lea th by drowning. We find in Wang..nui that one of the great problems in connection with a swimming campaign, is the lack of facilities in country centres In Wanganui itself we have very adequate facilities. There are some 14 baths in Wanganui alone; and with these facilities wo have been able to do excellent work. The number of children in the standards of the Wanganui schools—that is from Standard 1 upwards is 3365. and of these there are only 579 who cannot swim. But the great bulk of these are in Standard 1. and have jiwt recently been promoted from the primers, the majority of them coming from the primer classes when the schools assembled in February. But, as I have already stated, the difficulty in respect to a campaign of this nature is in the country areas, where the lack of facilities for swimming makes it necessary to transport children very often long distances to enable them to obtain instruction. That is one of the things which will hold back to a large extent this valuable campaign. “To give the House an idea of what can be done in the country areas " here facilities happen to be available, I may mention the centre of Waverley. The citizens of Waverley made a very laudable effort by voluntary subscriptions, and built a swimming bath in that area. It was in use foi ihe first time last season, and by the use of that pool 200 children learnt lo swim in Waverley alone. The difficulty is to get the necessary facilities in the country centres, and 1 think that probably the Government should endeavour to help people in country areas who are prepared to hejp themselves. to obtain adequate facilities. Facilities so far as learning lo swim are concerned need not be very elaborate. “I wish to compliment the Minister of Internal Affairs on the remarks he made recently with respect to life saving clubs. Those organisations do a valuable work for the public, but are probably not getting the recognition they should. They have a valuable factor in saving human life and we know from the figures that have been put on record that the incident of death from drowning is a much more serious problem than deaths from transport accidents. These clubs, in which are men of fine physique, give their services voluntarily, and ladies’ dubs also arc doing a wonderful work in patrolling our beaches. The Min-

ister mentioned just recently that bethought the time had arrived when these clubs should be put on a definite basis, and the responsibility for their upkeep placed on the Government, the local bodies and insurance offices just in the same way as the fire brigades are, for, after all, they must save the insurance companies a large aomunt of money so far as paying out on death policies is concerned. “One cannot commend too highly the assistance the Government has given towards the swimming campaign, and I sincerely hope that the basis of the organisation laid down last season will be even more firmly established and that the efforts in the coming year wyj be intensified.”