OUTDOOR SPORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 187, 9 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUTDOOR SPORTS.

INTERESTING LETTERS,

CANADIAN PASTIMES,

The subject set for last week's special letter proved popular among our young correspondents. Sheila Quinn and Doris Brown wrote good letters on New Zealand outdoor sports, whilst Jean Reeves wrote a very interesting letter about Canadian sports. Next week's subject will be: "These. Winter Mornings." 3, Tennyson Street, Mount Eden, Auckland. July 30, 1930. Dear Peter Pan. — The very name — " out-door" sports conjures up all that is healthy and invigorating. We think of swimming —ducking and diving in foamy breakers; we imagine crowds of laughing excited schoolgirls at basketball or cricket, and bovs at football. "Sport"—the name carries us up the mountains where ski-ing and skatiny in the snow and ice is the popular pastime, or out canoeing on the river—perhaps yachting on the harbour. New Zealand is essentially a sport-loving country, and we have, even more so than most countries, every facility for sport, In every school, from kindergardeu to university, boys and girls are taught to go in seriously for sport. In every town we find eager school competition and rivalry. There are beaches and holiday resorts for yachting and swimming. There is the ever popular National Park and Mount Cook for the Alpine climber; there is beautiful country and bushland scenery for those who arc keen on tramping. And always New Zealand is well to the fore in international competitions. Just a short while ago Now Zealanders bade au revoir and good-luck to the party who wer-3 off across the seas to represent our country in the Olympic sports in Canada. At present we are plunged right into the ever-popular Rugby season, and for the past month Rugby enthusiasts have watched witli interest the Test matches being played between Britain and New Zealand. The teams are of the best, the odds are even, and the games are fair and square. It remains for the last match to decide the winner. Mav the best team win, bat I think the All Blacks deserve a hearty cheer of congratulation on their splendid games so far. It is but natural that in a young free countrv like New Zealand open-air sports should'be so popular. Why ? There is the fresh liveliness of the outdoor sport; the thrill of the competition ; the eager desire to win; above all the determination to "play the game."—Your sincere friend, SHEILA QUINN.