SPORT IN N.Z. AS UNESCO SEES IT

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 8

SPORT IN N.Z. AS UNESCO SEES IT

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 16. ’ If horseracing and professional wrestling are excepted, only one sport. Rugby, the national game, has large spectator following in New Zealand, says a report from New Zealand published in the j review issued by the United NaItions Educational, Social and Culjtural Organisation on the place of sport in education.

The report says that although strictly amateur. Rugby competitions, provincial rivalry, and national fervour have many hallmarks of professional sport. Few could complain about spectator behaviour in New Zealand, but increasingly large crowds, especially at Rugby football, have led some observers to suggest that the watching habit is ousting the playing habit among New Zealanders where participation has always been widespread, the report says. The review is the result of a resolution passed by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1954 authorising the director-general to undertake, in collaboration with member States and appropriate international organisations, studies tending to develop and improve the practice of sport for educational purposes. Its account of sport in New Zealand was compiled as a result of a report from the Dominion. Sports’ Influence The review pays tribute to New Zealand for what it calls the “best conclusions” to the question whether sport as a spectacle or commercialised sport has harmful influence. New Zealand’s comment is that “games are not necessarily learned, played and watched in good spirit and it is possible for an undesirable influence to creep in. Furthermore, although playing games has within it the possibility of moral influence, such influence does not follow automatically, and even when it follows it does not automatically carry over into other phases of life.

“Physical education teachers hold the view that games hold possibilities for moral development, but this aspect must be planned for and suitable opportunities must be seized upon by discerning teachers if real success is to be achieved. “Moral decisions must be made almost constantly in most games but there is need for investigation and experiment as to whether these decisions are made automatically because of earlier training, whether, when they are first made, they are the result of conscious thought on the issue as a moral one. or whether they are in fact dictated by social pressures of the immediate situation, and how much they contribute to the general attitude on moral issues.” News on Sport The report says that the sporting press of New Zealand is free of sensationalism. “Parochial at times, it is inclined to fight for the selection of local sports heroes in national teams, but its main emphasis is upon wide coverage rather than upon undue criticism.” The cinema has very little influence on the education of

spectators in games and sports, except for sports news and events from overseas. New Zealand sport rarely appears in local cinemas. z

Radio commentaries on sports and sports news are given regularly. Radio coverage of sports is wide, with most of the time going to horse racing, Rugby, and cricket.

“Most of this radio coverage is purely descriptive, although there are summaries of play, interviews with visiting players and athletes, and comments on form.” Commenting on the contribution which sport can make to education for international understanding and co-operation in New Zealand, the report says that “one must feel some disillusionment at the trend in international sport since the 1939-45 war. In some cases athletic or games supremacy has become a sine qua non of general national superiority. “For example, the Olympic Games are now regarded by many as merely a testing ground for two great political units, and some international soccer matches seem to be a contest between rival political ideologies rather than games of football. “This is one field in which the influence of UNESCO might be used,” says the report.