SWIMMING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11882, 19 January 1914, Page 4

SWIMMING.

Almost daily the newspapers contain accounts of deaths by drowning, and many of these fatalities are due to the fact that the victims are unable to swim. Not only boys, but grown men go bathing in the sea and the rivers without having the least idea of how to swim. The result, very often, is that they get out of their depth and in addition to losing their own lives, are sometimes the cause of the death of others who go to their rescue. Many men who spend the greater part of their lives on the water cannot swim a stroke. In New Zealand, at all events, there is not the least excuse for any person who is unable to swim.- Every towii of any size has its swimming baths, with facilities for learners, ancl where baths do not exist there are - open rivers with pools shallow enough for beginners. Swimming, in addition to being a most useful and healthy exercise, is one of the most pleasant forms of recreation during tho summer. In Masterton the local swimming "club makes a laudable endeavour to attract all men to the water and those who refuse to learn the art of swimming have only themselves to blamo if in the future they fall victims to the surf or the river. .