The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1939. YOUTH AND THE MEMORIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 105, 6 May 1939, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1939. YOUTH AND THE MEMORIAL

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the irrovg that rccds resistance, Far the future in lhe distance, And the good that ire can do.

Alter an admirably thorough preliminary examination liy a sub-committcc, the proposals for Auckland'* centennial memorial are now before the local bodies and the public. The subcommittee recommended, in effect, that the choice be either the Waitakerc park or a physical i lilture centre. To these the executive added a third project, that of the extension of the K.iri tii tie Maternity 110.-pital. This project, had been rejected by the sub-commit tee

mi till' gl'ollllli, li'ivt. Ill' CXCCssivC COst, illld becau.-e the State appears to regard I lie provision oL' maternity facilities as its rc-pon-ibility. The project has been re illc 111 • i«*<l on condilion that the obstacle of co.-l can he overcome, hut local bodies may well consider that the second ground of the mi li-cntn tn ill ce's objection to it is sound and conclusive. is not the cost of publicly-owned maternity hospitals a proper charge on the Social Security Fund?

< M' the two proposals recommended, that of l lie phy-ical culture centre has had much le-s public explanation than the other. Neither it-- merits nor its demerits have been revealed. In its original form the proposal apparently was that a gymnasium, with clubrooins and other facilities, should be erected, and a site in the Domain has been -uggested. The city engineer proposes to enlarge upon the original project, principally by erecting n large grandstand. This suggested addition, or development, is not necessarily in harmony with the original idea. If physical culture is the aim, provision for spectators is not essential; it might easily be detrimental. The spectacle of thousands of people watching, and twenty-two or thirty men playing, is already familiar. A state of "physical culture" will not exist in the community until the numbers of spectators and players are reversed. That might be the proper ideal of a physical culture movement, but it is uncertain that any great advance towards it could be made by establishing a "centre." Jt is the "circumference," rather than the "centre," which is needed. Just as the strength of our major football codes is not in their possession of central grounds but in their club organisations, so a physical culture movement needs, not (at least, not first of all), a central gymnasium, but a score of small gymnasia, each so situated that it will be a " centre " for those who wish to use it.

Considerations fundamentally similar are applicable to the Waitukere park project. The argument that there exists now a splendid opportunity to preserve the Waitakere forest for the public is unassailable, but it is not in itself sufficient. Many people who assent to it do so without enthusiasm. They have read of other areas of forest being "set aside" as national parks or " reserves," and they have thought, and naturally, of the "setting aside," or the "preservation," as people used to think of the old kind of museum. There was fun in il for them. Jlenee it seem-; necessary that the advocates of the Waitakere park proposal should ask themselves this question : Jf the proposal is adopted, in what ways can the forest be made available for the delight and pleasure of the; ordinary man and woman, and particularly of the ordinary boy and girl? Someone has suggested, critically, that a huge sum would be needed to make proper roads in (and presumably around) the park. The suggestion betrays n sad misconception of the park's possibilities. If people can think of no other way to gain pleasure and refreshment from n forest than to motor around it, or through it, then they do not deserve the Waitakere forest, and in the end they will not have it. But the youth of Auckland, particularly in the schools, could think of ways much better of enjoying themselves in the Waitakeres. They, too, would have no interest in a forest "set aside" or "reserved," and not much interest in one that had been nicely tamed for smooth motoring, but the thought that a forest may be opened for their use, for their active enjoyment, would—unless youth has changed—evoke their enthusiasm ami their support for the project. Theirs would be the most valuable support it could have.