WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1916. THE MUNICIPAL BATHS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 20 December 1916, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1916. THE MUNICIPAL BATHS.

The Taihape Swimming Club is to be congratulated in having taken such steps as will ensure the Municipal swimming baths being made full legitimate use of during the current swimming season. The club can see its way clear to make the baths not only a success from a swimming point of view, but also from the financial aspect. It has in its ranks those organisers of entertainment and swimming enthusiasts that one scarcely expects to nnd in ah average BoTCUgll Council, men w-hose interest and enthusiasm will impel them to a course that will entirely relieve the ratepayers of having to contribute anything from rates, the expenditure of which is urgently required on our streets. The baths have been formally taken over, and pending the appointment of a permanent caretaker, ready temporary substitutes have offered so that the baths can be used at once. They are now being used, but the formal opening does not take place till to-morrow afternoon, w>he n it is hoped the public will show appreciation of what the club has accomplished. Of the utility of swimming it is scarcely necessary to speak. Accidents in the water are far from infrequent; and the power to swim, even when possessed in a small degree, may enable a person to save his own life or that of others. Conditions now obtaining should make every boy a swimmer at a very early age. Certainly no boy of eight or nine years should be unable to swim. We are taught all sorts of methods for saving human life, but w-hile water exacts an appalling toll, nothing of an urgent nature has been done to minimise the danger. Independent of the life saving value of swimming, it is one of the most bracing and healthful summer exercises people can indulge in. It is admittedly highly beneficial to the nervous system, and the production and development of muscular strength, and the opportunity the Taihape Swimming Club's action has given for indulging in this splendid exercise will add immensely to the pleasure and health-giving influence that should be exercised by the establishment of up-to-date Municipal Baths. Parents, if for nothing more than the safety of the life of their children, should make their boys ana girls join the swimming club, where a

willing course of instruction will be readily given by elder members. The sanitary value of toe baths is so obvious that no comment is necessary thereon.