THE WORSHIP OF GAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 301, 20 December 1922, Page 4

THE WORSHIP OF GAMES.

It is significant that in the same school prize-giving season two Auckland headmasters have expressed the opinion that too much importance is attached to games. At the King's College breakingup Mr. Major spoke emphatically against the multiplication of trophies for inter-school competition in sports of all kinds, and declared that his school was not going to encourage this policy. It is, he thinks, bad for boys for two reasons —that it gives them too much publicity, and that it forms a false sen?e of values. The headmaster of Christ's College, Christchurch, some time ago had something similar to say about the tendency to make schoolboys into public entertainers and to control school games from outside. Coming from England, he thought it absurd that his school could not hold a boxing competition without getting permission from the Boxing Association. At the Grammar School gathering last evening Mr. Tibbs' references to the subject mostly had to do with the qualifications for Rhodes Scholars. He thinks the importance of the athletic side is exaggerated, apparently by the selectors as well as by the public. This is a point on which we would be chary about expressing an opinion. We remember Rhodes scholars from N'civ J Zealand who were far from being bril- \ liant in athletics. However. Mr. Tibbs

speaks with authority on this matter, for he was one of the drafters of the original regulations, and he combines an Oxford training with nearly forty years' service in a great colonial school. It will be interesting to hear what the selectors of Rhodes Scholars have to say to his criticism. Mr. Major's attitude towards competitions and Mr. Tibbe' opinion that footbull "certainly seems to carry too much weight to-day" may be scouted in quarters where games form the chief and almost s6le topic of conversation, but they will bo applauded by people of a more serious turn of mind. There is no idea of abolishing games, which are an essential part of our educational system, and proved their value in the greatest test to which our race has over been subjected. But there is moderation in all things, and the man on the shady sjde of forty is struck by the extent to which school athletics have developed since his day. In the Auckland of those days an inter-school match was an uncommon occurrence, and was played before a handful of people on a secondorder ground. School teams never travelled. To-day, if the tendency were not checked, we might have inter-school competitions in hockey, tennis, swimming, and perhaps even ning-pong, in addition to cricket and football, and playing and travelling would be the chief occupation of quite a number of boys. So much limelight and excitement caniiot ne good for boys or for their schools. It is admittedly difficult to get boys to take the interest they should in intVller. tual subjects. In English public schools the. excessive importance attached t.i games has been tire subject of comment for many years, and apparently it is still a serious defect in the system. New Zealand secondary schools "are modelled to a large extent schools. an,l some of them seem to have accepted easily and eagerly the English cult of sport. English experience should be a warning against danger u s well as an inspiration, and there is no reason why devotion to games should be encouraged unnecessarily. Even with a stern policy of restriction there will be many boya rlio will much more interested ill games than in lessons.