The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1887. SWIMMING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1698, 29 October 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1887. SWIMMING.

It seems strange that m a maritine country like Great Britain the art of swimming as a branch of physical education should have remained neglected, ignored m fact, until within the last quarter of a century. About 1870 appalling casualties at sea, and on inland rivers, directed public attention to the great mistake the nation was making m neglecting the teaching of the art. The sense of the need for the cultivation of such a useful art was awakened with such good results, that, m most of the large cities swimming baths have been established where the art may be practised and professional instruction obtained, if desired. We regret to say that the utility of the art is not so fully appreciated as it ought to be m the colony. The numerous victims to our apathy, which year after year swell the lists of accidental deaths, speak eloquently to us of the unwisdom of longer neglecting this useful branch of physical education. How many homes are. saddened every year by accidental drowning, removing one or more members of the family. In a country like this with so many rivers, either altogether unbridged or insufficiently bridged, it is, we think, the neigb_t of folly to allow our children to grow up m ignorance of the art. We are glad to learn that a movement is on foot m Ashburton for the establishment of a swimming bath. A petition to the Borough Council is, we understand, being very numerously and influentially signed, asking the Council to take steps to establish an institution of the kind. We trust that our " City Fathers " may be able to see their way to granting the prayer of the petition. If they do not, we can only trust that the evening of their days may not be shawowed over by the bitter reflection that by their refusal they may have contributed to the loss of one or more valuable lives, and thereby blighted the happiness of their surviving relatives and friends.