The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, JANUARY, 1913. THE SWIMMING CLUB.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 25, 28 January 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, JANUARY, 1913. THE SWIMMING CLUB.

| The Stratford Swimming Club, which, I earlier in the year, threatened, to foli low the Stratford Cricket Club into I the limbo of forgotten things, was re- | suseitated last night, and wo hope to see it before long fully revived, taking its place among our local sporting institutions, a thoroughly live body, and performing its many functions as a- healthy organisation should. It is I very largely due to the energies of; the Club’s late President, Dr. Carbery, that the meeting was held last night, and, though small in numbers, it was a very enthusiastic gathering, giving promise of better things in the future. Financially, the club is in a sound position, but in other respects' it is far from flourishing, a fact very i much to bo regretted. Dr. Carbery placed the position very fairly before the meeting last night, when he said that at a time like this, when the public was confronted with so many sad fatalities by drowning, it made people wonder why such attention was paid to the “useless” in sport, when that which counted so much in the life of a man—the power to save himself and possibly others from a dreadful death —was put in the background. Nor will it be disputed that, while death by drowning is the commonest form of accidental death in New Zealand, the great majority of the tragedies recorded might have been averted or the loss .of life at least minimised had I those concerned possessed the skill which ordinary instruction in life-sav-ing methods would have imparted. Another point Dr. Carbery made was that of the great value and importance of swimming as a physical exercise, and in referring to this he mentioned particularly the benefit derived by several young girls of originally poor physique who had been regular attendants in the swimming season at the Stratford Paths, and at 5 a.m. took their morning dip. The development in health and physical fitness had been mo.st marked in many cases. A

suggestion is now made that a Ladies’ ■ Committee should he sot up, and, if possible, a swimming meeting arranged in which the sterner sex shall take no part. Such a venture should prove entertaining and highly popular, and, what would certainly he host of all, might stimulate girls and women in our midst to take active interest in the natatorial art. At present few of the sex are at all conversant with the

pleasant and healthful exorcise of swimming. For the sake of the young ones now growing up tb take their places in the world’s work, p rents ought to insist that their boys nuid girls be taught to swim, and the earlier the better.