Luxury staff in recreation

Press, 27 August 1977, Page 4

Luxury staff in recreation

Wellington Reporter The biggest problem facing people professionally employed in the recreation business is that they are widely regarded as luxuries, a dangerous position in a period of nil or even declining economic growth, according to Mr Jack Shallcrass of the education department at Victoria University. To survive, let alone make progress, such professionals would have to change people’s attitudes, he told an outdoor recreation planning symposium in Wellington. This was always a

tough proposition, but doubly difficult when people were uneasy or afraid. The days of growth in

[ the area of recreational i funding were over, and I this would have to be j lived with, he said. People j would have to do more | than sit “on their back- ; sides” and ask for their ' fair share of an ever-in- [ creasing cake: they would

have to work hard if they wanted anything at all.

In the last 30 years, New Zealanders had come to depend on the fruits of someone else’s labour, and had come to depend on hand-outs rather than achieving themselves. “New Zealand is in the interesting moral position of having to bully people who can afford to buy what we produce, but don’t want because they already produce a surplus themselves, into buying it, while those who do want it can't afford it,” Mr Shallcrass said. “Either we allow this situation to continue and get worse, or we throw up some responsible leadership and motivation within the community.

“If there are not sufficient people accepting responsibility and providing leadership, then ultimately it will have to be imposed by some overriding authority — and then our open society will be finished,’’ he §aid.