Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

SWIMMING

Although the art of swimming has been practised for many centuries it did not achieve status as a sport until the 1830s, the first clubs being organised in England about 1837. The earliest swimming club in New Zealand was the Christchurch Amateur Swimming Club, which was formed on 11 October 1880. This was followed by the formation of similar clubs at Hamilton (1881), Auckland (1888), East Christchurch (1890), Ashburton and Gisborne (1891), Lyttelton, Port Ahuriri, and St. Albans (1892), Sydenham, Richmond, and Whangarei (1893), and Dunedin, Napier, Wellington, and Palmerston North (1894).

Co-creator

McLintock, Alexander Hare