OHOPE SWIMMING POOL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 202, 21 August 1940, Page 4

OHOPE SWIMMING POOL

Sir, —I notice in your issue of August 14th ti'at you published a ltt.er by a correspondent on the proposed "Learn to Swim" pool, at Ohope, above the signature of T\nsj," but just below it ,says -hats!" * Now, Sir, I would not dream of making that exclamation to anyone, let alone '"Tense," but when Prov.idence comes along and says it for me, well, liow can I object? It is rather tiring when all your correspondents harp on the fact that the pool would be fresh water, when enquiries I made reveal that all th.e "Learn to Swim" 1 poo's (abdut 20) erected last year in the Auckland district have fresli water. Sense If your thoughts you'd camouflage, And intentions make obscure. Why give it any other badge, Than call it sense, O sure. Yes, call it sense, then no doubt, You'll make a trap for fools, Who, muddled, flounder in and out Fresh water swimming pools. • Sir, hoping you will give me space -for tills much-vexed project, I would like to answer the various criticisms, some of which may be honest, though mistaken. Firstly: I find the most energetic of these critics in the Press are those who assert that Ohope is not the place for a children's Learn to Swim pool, that it should be in Whakatane, inferring, I take it, that if there is none in Whakatane, why should there be one at Ohope. Whac else can one think, when not one of these people, will back their opinions by offering to start a fund to provide a Learn to Swim pool in Whakatane by donating five pounds for that purpose? Sir, the only true test I know, in a case of this sort, of the honesty of a person's convictions, is, Will they let it touch their pockets? If not then they are not honest, as 'they are trying to w r ork a point, and voicing opinions at the expense of the other fellow. Secondly: There is a small minority also who say they are against a Learn to Swim pool on the grounds that it is not necessary, and one can ordy conclude, that it is because they have no children and feel under no ' obligation to other tieople's children to provide them with facilities to learn .to swim. I would ask them to think./ and act, that we all should have the interest at heart of all children* and by providing facilities, help them to grow up strong and healthy and able to swim ■well, so that at any time they will feel safe in the water where ever they are, and able to help another in difficulties. , Then we come to an aspect of other people's children. New Zealand js proposing to- provide homes for 2500 refugee children. Are they, through neglecting to provide them with facilities to learn to swim, being brought to a risk of drowning in New Zealand. It is quite possible a lot of these children cannot swim and will be visiting Oh<>pe. . Thirdly: A. few say "Leave it until after.the war," and I do not consider that good reasoning. It is more important that we try to save life now New Zealand is sending thousands of young men out of the country. Suppose some one suggested j that idea to the Hon. R. Semple in * regard to road fatalities and expen- ' diture on roadis. You may silence 1 your conscience by saying, "Oh, but * there will ' always be drownings." ( If Mr Semple reasoned that way, 1 with regard to road accidents would ' it be logical for him to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds making overhead bridges to make railway crossings safe? Also do away with dangerous corners on roads? So 1 Avith droAvnings, of Avhich there are almost as many deaths, with this * difference, that the hap- 1 pen in less than half the time. The Hon. R. Semple said there are far too many fatalities from road accidents and too many drown- J ings in Ncav Zealand. I intend to use eA T ery endeavour to see if they can be checked. We must lessen this J unnecessary Avaste of life. The Hon. W. E, Parry, Minister ] of Internal Affairs, stated: "In Avartime a country must keep it-.s peopie intact," when referring to disappointnient expressed by a number of people; Avliose. applications for to leave New. Zealand had been ideclined, yet only last | year because of dr6AvnWgs (149 - children and young pdople of both sexes) and please note, this effects the .natural increase in births in New Zealand—a, loss to. our

country. Here we have 700 drownings in five years. If we, by teaching every child to swim and practise swimming, can lessen that num- ; ber by only 5 per cent,- 35. .In five years (and don't forget the natural increase) it is well worth providing facilities to te;ach .every child to swim. These drownings of hundreds v ' - have not only been children, but young people of both sexes, in the prime of life, and a lot of them: need never have happened, if, as children, they had been taught to swim and encouraged! to practise swimming. So let us do away with our indifference to this unnecessarywaste of life. , y Fourthly: Another objector says, "Oh, but no one has been drowned on this beach, it is the safest in New • Zealand." ; Granted, but the thou- ' sands of children who use this beach in the Course of the year also use other-beaches and rivers that' are not safe and if they learn, to swim here, they have a chance for their safety anywhere else. In fact, this beach being so it \ more possible that/ thegk?svill ; take ; • * A chances elsewhere.' r Fifthly: Now we come to the latest objection by the Coynty Council, which stresses the liability of the Council for accidents if a Learn to Swim pool is built Jit Ohope, which.can be covered for a few pounds. Has the Council ever considered . the liability loadfed. on to j the Ohope ratepayers on account of loans raised over the County in the past 20 or 30 years and on which Ohope is paiyirig at present about £105 per year in rates for interest and sinking fundi? Before the last valuation it was about £10 and 10 years ago only a. few pounds. .r These'loans'were spent anywhere .in the County other than Ohope. Is the Council going to consider Ohope purely as' a gilt edged security, in which, without haying, in- - , vested any initial funds, it may benefit by. the natural progress of ; the beach. and take i'n rates every value that accumulates witlmut giving any return. I would ask the Council to clieal fairly with Ohope and as it hope for justice, to deal justly and as a public duty, and for its Conscience sake, give support to the children's Learn to Swim pool at'Ohope. ' Yours etc., ; F. MAHY. Ohope, August 19th.