Beaches Lure Christmas Crowd

NZ Truth, Issue 1151, 22 December 1927, Page 1

Beaches Lure Christmas Crowd

THHERE is something primitive but 1 altogether alluring m the desire to mingle with the waters of the sea. Scientists would have us believe that all mankind once evolved from a proto plasm that .surged back and f jrthr on a vast expanse of water, like a jelly-fish; but, be that as it may, there is scarcely .one of us that m this time of summer does not' hear the call of the soothing surf. And what better endowed conn fry is there m the world for sea bathing than New Zealand? Surely none. It is true that other countries have their Palm Beaches, their Rivieras or their Waikikis, but New Zealand with her thousands of beautiful bays, her deep inlets where the water is blue and deep enough to awe the beholder, and her miles of beautiful, level beaches, where the surf roars m with oceanic frenzy, is this not a country most bountifully endowed?

New Zealand beaches are, happily, the rendezvous of a healthy community, where people congregate mainly imbued with a desire to swim or to bask m the healing sun. Thanks to our democratic standards, there is nothing of that parade of fashion which is such a feature of a great number of the fashionable watering-places abroad — America and the Continent. There ladies of meticulous dress parade m swimming suits that were never designed to stand the infliction of salt water on their delicate folds. As with the women, so with the men. Some of . them may want to swim, but a great many — adopting the sage advice to those about to marry — don't. No place here; for plain Bill Jbnes, farmer, with a wife and three children, to swim, sunbathe, eat penny ice-creams and gen-

erally behave m an "uncultured" but terribly healthy manner. Yes, New Zealand is different. Then there is the beautiful rendezvous of rich Americans, Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, where the breakers roll m from more than a mile out and the happy kanakas ride the crests on surf boards like hurtling, bronzed gods of the sea. There, too, the picturesque natives under a grolden moonlight strum stringed .instruments and croon seductive love aongs to, supposedly, susceptible tourists. Gomes Sydney! Glorious are the •b'gactves^f -Australia. 'Who could 'deity' the beauty, for instance, of the silver strand of loveliness, Coogee. But there is a catch m all that limpid sunlight and sea. The warm waters may hide a lurking, horrible instrument of death that all the efforts of the authorities have been unable to eliminate. That is the terrible shark menace. Many a fine specimen of manhood, typical of the spirit of Australia, and radiating the virility of her generous climate, has dived care-free into the breakers, only to be taken out a moment later a mangled, bleeding man. So savage have the sharks become at times on the Sydney beaches that they have followed their victims close inshore and have attacked their rescuers. But again the lucky New Zealander can plunge into the waters with only

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) ,5 UMMER is the season of the surf. The long hot days, when the lazy pacific roll whispers to lure the clerk f rom his stool, the artisan from his bench and the farmer from his plough. 'Tis then they throw aside the clinging, dpying, garb of an effete civilisation to lave white limbs m the relaxing cradle of mother sea with her coverlet of blue, her fringe of foaming lace-like surf and her brooding beneficent nurse, the sun.

the remotest chance of anything of that sort : -h.a.pftbning, ;££ ory. .^lthdueltsharks HaVe-'b^^'sigh'tedt'u'rouu;;! <kir beaches at various times during the hottest periods of the year, it is very rare indeed for them to attack a. man. and they can usually be frightened away with ease. The standard of decency that exists on our beaches is also a matter of congratulation. It is true that at, times sinister individuals are haled

before ,tbSJ courts of justice for of-fpneeg^-.tii^^lie.Jaw^.but; thege gases 'atfr 'M^unat^y' :s£rV < 'anfl '-•> are - : =i not typical of the standard of conduct on our lovely New Zealand beaches. On all the main beaches near the cities there are caretakers who see to it that women and children can enjoy the benefits of surfing unmolested, and there arc also many efficient life-saving clubs. Members of these clubs, indeed,

perform valuable and very often unappreciated patrol and life-line work m protecting thoughtless bathers from the dive fruits of their own rashness on days when the tide-rips cause a dangerous undertow. At times the Mother Grundyism of city fathers has caused irksome restrictions to unnecessarily mar the full enjoyment of the public that frequents the beaches of some cf our most popular towns. Timaru was a case m point. , There, where nestles Caroline Bay, one of the most beautiful and attractive-batuing--places' m: the country, it was impossible • for a..:'lotfg- time-;- to .<swiin on Sundays; •■^ v v.^^t(ii^tfiitig•^:^Hjp■asr^wtet«t locked up, the children's swings were tied up, the tennis courts were closed,' and, however hot the day, the good people of Timaru, whether they liked it or not, had to sit and suffer m a welter of alleged Puritanism that would have made a Cromwell flinch. • However, with' the march of progress, the regulations have been relaxed one by one and now one may swim on Sunday morning, although the afternoon is still "taboo." Perhaps since the advent of daylight saving the city fathers of Timaru have had light enough to see that undue* and. harsh restrictions do not elevate the moral tone of a community, but merely lead to subterfuge, hypocrisy, narrowmindedness and rob the individual of much physical and consequently mental good.