OHOPE SWIMMING POOL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 141, 1 April 1940, Page 4

OHOPE SWIMMING POOL

Sir. —Were it not for the fact that your last correspondent under this heading signed herself 'Mother' I would feel inclined to treat the matter less seriously than I do. I realise however that she is no doubt guided in her efforts by the best of motives and seeks only to build a swimming bath at the school for the benefit of the local school chit- *•- dren, her own included. No one will argue against this being a very worthy and laudable thing, but the point the good lady overlooks so easily is that the money raised fßv the proposed Ohope Pool was collected by the initiative of a who is interested in Ohope and seeks only to be of service to that settlement. Whakatane on the other hand with ten times the population, and all the wealth and socalled progressive organisations it is possible for a town of its size to have, has simply fallen down on the job,, and is now fast asleep in. > its own apathy and indifference. No one will give a lead, or show the enterprise that Mr Mahy has shown in the interests of the Whakatane school—yet it is very nice to see the complacency of the parents who are quite prepared to fatten the project on the money someone else has collected for "the silly proposal of building a pool at Ohope." Of the hundreds of parents 'whose children attend the Whakatane school, is there not one who willstep out and start a fund for a bath, in which the children may be taught to swim under the teacher's supervision. This would be far more praiseworthy than yelping for mone\* that rightly belongs somewhere else. The idea of a pool ab Ohope is to provide a small bath! such as those already in existence at half a dozen other beach resort's in the Dominion. If there is anything really wrong with it, I have yet to hear. It i? impossible for small children to be taught to swim in the sea water at Ohope. It is too rough, and the backwash makes it impossible to let the littl'e ones retain their balance or their confidence. Throughout the last Christmas and New Year holidays, there was not a single occasion when small children could safely be permitted to go out any further than paddling depth. Very nice surfing for adults, but for the small children—no! I know of a group of residents living at the Southern end . of the beach who constructed a pool by damming a stream against the sandhills during this very period. In this small pool children, lounged and paddled all day, and one—believe it. or not—actually learnt to swim there. The-proposal for the bath is merely to make such amenities as .this, permanent. The sponsor has been public-spirit-ed enough to offer the entire cost, and two years maintenance into the bargain. Is there anything wrong with thatj? As I said before I have still to hear of it. Thanking you, Mr Editor, for your space and trusting that something of the merits of the case for Ohope will now be accepted. Yours etc., 'FAIR PLAY.*