In 1957, when teaching at Westshore, Napier Primary School, each day I took a half-hour swimming lesson in the school pool. My standard one class had 39 pupils ages 7 to 8. By the end of the summer every pupil could swim at least one length of the pool and one seven year old girl swam the equivalent to half a mile. This exercise was reinforced by a lunchtime swim at the adjacent beach. Subsequently came requirements for pool maintenance so stringent that schools discontinued their upkeep and the pools were abandoned. So the drowning rates increase.

Bryan Johnson, Omokoroa.