THE TRAINING OF A SOUND BODY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16208, 10 May 1918, Page 2

THE TRAINING OF A SOUND BODY.

I—-—1 —-— ADVICE BY A WELL-KXOWX RECTGi{. At tin; annual meeting of ilic lloyal New Zealand Society lor the Health of Women and Children, held at Dunedin, on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Frank Milncr, Hector of the Waitaki Boys' High School, delivered the main address, taking for his subject "The Necessity for .i Sound Physical Regimen in Education." He said that we "could not expect to stand up to the tension \ and stress of modern life unless we were prepared to adopt a more natural form of living, with more fresh air and more daily exercise. The place to instil this as a national habit was in the schools. The training of character and the training of a sound Body were the foundation oi educatiou. The cold shower, plenty of physical exercise in the open air, and the cultivation of regular habits were in his experience first necessities, and he believed that if it were possible to make people believe in perspiration and the tonic effect of tho bath after the exercise that induced perspiration they would find themselves t<t the very acme of fitness, with no need for whisky and such other pickups to make themselves feel fit. Mr Milner referred also at length to games. He said that the Americans had organised boys' games to a marvellous degree. The best results could be obtained from a combination of the standard English games and a form of Swedish drill. He was a great believer himself in Rugby football, which developed esprit de corps, the group spirit, ana in boxing, which taught a boy vo be a man, to tako a knock in good spirit, and to keep his temper. Both these sports, moreover, developed the will to "rtick it out," which had stood our racc in such good stead in the trenches. Every boy should have two hours of physical training in the open air every day. He heartily congratulated the society upon taking* up the task of educating the public in regard to tho care of the teeth. There should be proper school dental clinics, v.hich had "existed in Germany as far back as 1904. All honour was due «o T>r. King for specialising on this question, and lie (the speaker) could say Aonestlv that he had found the greatest instruction in the doctors brief summary of the facts about the teeth. So far as boys were concerned, it was also important to show them the evils of the tobacco habit upon the immature, and to give them the facts which" finally discredited alcohol either as a be vera £o or as a drug. To discredit alcohol among boys as sound scientific teaching would discredit it, would be to achieve something really great for the future of any nation. He nad been the means of bringing up a great number of his pupils as total abstainers, and that was one of tho things of which he was most- proud. There was also great need of sound instruction in sex hygiene. He considered that, in view of parental neglect to give such instruction, it was necessary—in every boarding school at least —to see that tho pupils received frank and sound physiological instruction. It was no cise adopting a false delicacy, because if a bov was not told the truth about himself "and tho racial instinct, he was bound +o get the knowledge through perverted sources when the natural sex curio s ity manifested itself. The subject could be handled on the very highest plane as to inculcate the most devout feeling of chivalry for the other sex, and his own experience convinced him that a fine response could be elicited. I'arentnl neglect in this matter was very widespread, and the central physiological fact that had to lie dealt with in iht? high schools was the coining on of puberty.