Mothers Who Hate ‘ Safe ’ Beaches.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1920, Page 1

Mothers Who Hate ‘ Safe ’ Beaches.

“It’s rather a dangerous beach for children, isn’t it?.” asked a friend of a mother who was taking her children to the seaside. “I hate ‘safe’ beaches,” was the reply. “Haven’t you noticed that’s where all the accidents happen?” There-is a good deal, of truth, in the contention. A long stretch of sandy shore, with no sudden shelving, is considered so safe that the little ones are allowed to paddle unattended. “Nothing can happen to them down there,” the mothers think. And the children, bored with playing about in shallow water, wade out a long distance and perhaps get suddenly swept off their feet by the incoming tide, or go out on one of those sandbar—• which are always found where there are ‘safe beaches, and get surrounded by deep vater before they realise wliat has happened.

How many drowning fatalities can bo recalled that have occurred in this way! I remember one. a few years ago, whore two wee toddlers were drowned before their mother’s eyes,though there were hundreds of people on the shore at the time.' There was plenty of help at hand, hut there was such.a long stretch of sand to traverse before the little ones were reached; and though the water came up only to the grown-up people’s. knees, the children were beyond human aid when they were rescued, still clasping thir wooden spades. **-**, * Another danger of the sandy shore is the practice of tunnelling, which so delights the bigger children. This was the cause of a recent fatality, but though it is so frequently a source of accident, many parents still seem unaware of the danger of being buried in the sand. No matter how quickly a child is dug! out, he is almost certain to he suffocated.

Some small hoys at a. seaside preparatory school had made a deep tunnel into the sandy cliff one half-holiday when, without any warning, the whole tiling fell in and several boys were buried. Every one of them was dead when dug out. A third danger of the sandy shoio arises from the terrific heat given out by it on a hot, sunny day. Beneath the hand one can feel the scorching heat of the sand, above .which the hot air quivers. Yet little children are allowed to play about all day long, often quite inadequately protected from the sun, with results that every seaside doctor knows. Where there is a dangerous beach the children are never left to play alone, and the result is that there are actually fewer accidents than at places where there is a “safe” beach.