A WORD TO PARENTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12053, 22 December 1906, Page 4

A WORD TO PARENTS.

Now that summer has fairly set in boys, and girls also, are everywhere indulging their fondness for the water. A sad feature of the bathing season is that drowning accidents are reported from time to time right through the periol over which it extends, and we suppose when the present summer is over the toll of young life taken will be found to be no less than in previous years. Only on Wednesday last a young girl, one of a bathing party of three, lost her life near Nelson, while yesterday the drowning of a boy was reported from Wairoa. It will be strange if we do not hear of more such sad events at Christmas, New Year, and during and after the school holidays. Such sad occurrences, of course, are the strongest possible argument for teaching our young folk to swim, and it certainly is a matter for surprise that, considering the large number of such accidents, there should still be found so many young people unable to make use of such a necessary accomplish- ' ment. Here, in Wanganui, we are well equipped With a fine public swimming bath, which is well patronised by the schools. Consequently a fairly large number of our boys and girls are able to swim, and drowning accidents in our river are comparative rarities. In the country swimming has usually to be learnt in dams, creeks and rivers, and boys usually taking their lesson's without the supervision of elder persons, accidents frequently occur. The only way to stop this needless waste of life, which, while not of appalling magnitude, is yet steady, is to teach the art of swimming in the schools, and we look forward to the day when it will be as much a part of the curriculum as reading and writing. The Wanganui Preparatory School, as our readers are aware, includes it in tlje syllabus, and the results have been very satisfactory. One great danger which boys run, and which it behoves parents to guard against, is through the habit of attempting too much before they have gained proficiency. A half-taught boy, able to manage 40 or 50 yards, perhaps attempts a hundred yard swim. He becomes exhausted whilo out of his depth, and before help arrives perhaps meets a watery grave. Parents should, therefore, at this time of the year, look upon it as not the least of their duties tp their boys to see that they never go bathing without one or more good swimmers in Hicir party able to render assistance if it i-> lcquired. Nor should they neglect to strongly emphasise the need of caution. Boys are of course reckless, and they have what seems an almost incurable fondness for the water. Parents ought to try to make use of that fondness in a right way, and without taking their boys' assurances that " it is alright" for granted, they would do well to withhold permission to bathe till satisfied that it is so. If a boy knows for certain that he will be denied the pleasure of a bathe until such time as his safety is assured, he will generally exert himself to secure the proper safeguards. We feel that this matter ought to be strongly insisted on, and if proper precautions are taken at the beginning and observed all through the season, i€ will probably save some father or mother from grieving over a young life thrown away.