Labour told to review sports view

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 9

Labour told to review sports view

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. The New Zealand Federation of Sports has challenged the Labour Party to review its policy of Government intervention in international sport. In a letter to the Prime Minister (Mr Rowling), the president of the federation (Mr J. R. Buckingham) said the majority of sportsmen and women wished to retain the right to make their own decisions without Government intervention. He said this sentiment had been expressed unanimously in a statement made by organisations representing 90 per cent of New Zealand’s sportsmen — more than Im people. “The federation pleads that the Government consider the consequences of limiting sporting contact, which is eroding a vita! form of human contact, that of sportsmen and sportswomen meeting in competition without judgment,” he said.

Mr Buckingham also asked the Prime Minister to say when a Labour Government would allot 0.25 per cent of the gross national product to encourage the development of recreation, sports, arts, and culture, as it had promised the federation before the 1972 election. -

He said this proportion of the G.N.P. in 1975-76 would represent about s26m, but that only $7.6m would be spent on recreation, sport, culture, and the arts.