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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 206, 20 January 1913, Page 4

SURF BATHING. New Plymouth, like many other places in the Dominion, is endowed with a wealth of beautiful sea beaches where local people and visitors are in the habit of disporting themselves during the summer months in the surf. There is nothing more exhilarating or more invigorating than this particular pastime, but it ought to be remembered that it has its dangers. This year we have had more than the usual crop of drowning fatalities throughout the Dominion, and unfortunately our own district has had a particularly sad experience. Attractive and smiling as our beaches are, it ought to be borne in mind that they have their dangers. Both at the East End and the West End at certain stages of the tide there is an undertow, and the unwary bather is apt at any moment to get into sorious trouble unless he is particularly careful. For tin's reason we are glad to see the active formation of a surf-bathing and life-saving club in our midst. It is no exaggeration to say that in Sydney and -Melbourne hundreds of lives have been saved by the voluntary efforts of a band of strong swimmers who patrol the beaches in their spare time carefully watching the operations of the bathers and ready at any moment to go to the' assistance of those in distress. Such clnbs have also done much useful work in our own country, and there is hardly a centre of any importance where they have not been established, and where they are not doing excellent work. It is another evidence of our recent waking from slumber that j a number of enthusiasts locally should have banded themselves together to form a club in New Plymouth. But since they are giving their services gratuitously in a particularly arduous work it is only fair that the town itself should see that they are properly equipped. With a strong life-saving club in our midst the beaches would become doubly attractive and parents would "go the softer all their days, for the thought's sake," with a sense of the better security of their children. The club will require a certain amount of apparatus, safely stored, on each of the beaches, and the active members should not be asked to put their bands in their pockets when they may require to use them in the sea. The remedy is. 0 f course, obvious. The club mny reasonably lookto the Borough Council for a subsidy of some sort, but a much more effectire method of putting it on a substantial footing would be a generous response from the general public to the appeal for membership. Membership, of course, dees not necessarily imply an active participation in the patrolling of the beaches, for that will bo best undertaken by those who are physically fitted for the work. But the club must have funds, and the mothers and fathers of the town should find the money. The subscription has been fixed at the modest figure of 2s Gd for men and Is for ladies and schoolboys. A lead from the ladies in this matter, in which they are quite •v murh interested as the men. should stimulate interest in this admirable movement, and we would suggest that (he club should set up a small eonmiiMee of Indies (o canvas, the town for membora. There is always a wai! that subscriptions are being continually demanded for this, that and the other objnef, but we know of none that is more (jeserving of hearty public support and appreciation. The club does not desir*

any very heavy financial endowment, but the more ready the response the better will be its equipment. One hesitates to talk of self-intercit in a purely philanthropic movement like this, but it is quite certain that a strong association of this sort would materially add lo the attractions of the town ami the beaches, and give a sense of security to a, delightful pastime which is at present not without its clangers.