BOY PUNISHED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 9

BOY PUNISHED.

ATTENDED SOCCER GAME

COMMITTEE MEN ANGRY.

'OF I HAD BEEN HIS FATHER." "Shame!" "It's a good job I wasn't his father!" "I was just about to say the same thing!" These comments were passed at a meeting of the Wellington School Committee*;' and Education Federation when Mr. N. Ingram alleged, on the affidavit of seven persons, that one boy attending a Wellington school had been given 32 "cuts" because he had attended a primary school Soccer trial when the other boys had gone away to play Rugby. The Brooklyn school committee wrote to the Association saying that the Brooklyn school had been approached by a representative of the Soccer code for the purpose of gaining the headmaster's opinion on the matter. The headmaster had placed the matter before the committee, which stated that while recognising that the Rugby code had become the national game it did not wish to be biased on the matter, and asked for the views of the federation. Mr. N. Ingram was strongly of the opinion that boys attending the schools should be allowed to play any game they wished. He had quite an open mind as to the games—he had played Rughy himself—but he did not think a boy should be coerced into playing any particular code. He mentioned the Rongotai College as an instance where Rugby was played exclusively, where indeed no other code was allowed. Facilities for All Games Urged. Mr. Ingram moved: "That this meeting of the Wellington School Committees' and Education Federation is of opinion that facilities should be given for the playing of all games of sport in public schools, believing that restricting opportunities to one particular sport is detrimental to the physical development of scholars and to the spirit of the education facilities, which ■ not only embraces academic studies, but physical instruction as well, and-that the Brooklyn school should be informed accordingly."

A speaker thought that the attitude of Mr. E. Martyn Renner, headmaster of Rongotai College, might have been dictated by the fact that Rugby was pre-eminently an amateur game, whereas other codes in other countries were more or lees professional. One teacher delegate said that she thought the predominance of Rugby iu the schools was owing to the majority of sports masters leaning toward that code. Their work was quite voluntary, so that she thought they were treading on rather delicate ground. The motion was carried without a dissentient voice.