PHYSICAL FITNESS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 8

PHYSICAL FITNESS

Proposed Activities Of National Council

MINISTER EXPLAINS Sport Only One Aspect Of Movement By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, December 15. The proposed activities of the National Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation which has been set up under the Physical Welfare and Recreation Act were described by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, when speaking at a sports dinner arranged by the Auckland Young Men’s Christian Association.' During his speech, Mr. Parry mentioned a number of objections which had been raised since the Act first came before the House of Representatives and explained exactly what was meant by the Act and what was intended by the Government, He said he hoped there remained no idea in the minds of anybody that what was to be constituted was a National Council of Sport. “Mistaken impression seemed to have arisen that what he aimed at was purely a federation of sports with something big in the nature of outside control of them. Nothing was farther from his mind. He had made it clear that not only was there no idea of either regimentation of sport or super-imposed control of it, but also that sport was only one of the many agencies which the Government desired to co-operate in a general movement. He did not intend to belittle the important part that sport was to play, for he wanted to appeal to such bodies as the Y.M.C.A. and its guests represented to feel more than ever the responsibility of bodies charged with a part in a great national effort. Mr. Parry said sports and games, were to be viewed not as things in themselves apart from anything else, but as part of the whole. Above all lie wished to urge wide tolerance and sympathy by one sport for another. The time had long since passed in New Zealand when the interests of any sport involved hostility to another. At times competition for such things as members, grounds and facilities had unfortunately tended to a measure of intolerance and one of the aims of the new Act would be to help in the provision of sufficient facilities throughout the Dominion to enable all sports to indulge themselves to the full without the necessity of depriving any other sport of the facilities it needed. The first duty of the National Council would be to make a survey of New Zealand to discover what were the existing facilities and equipment, what new ones were required for the present and then for the future and 1 how these new facilities were to be provided. Fresh powers had been given local bodies for this, but their burden could be lightened by the active work and co-operation of sports bodies. He asked these bodies not to look to local bodies or the Government to do everything. Much of the past expenditure could have been avoided by a rational contribution, not necessarily of money, but of work by those who stood to benefit most from the provision of new facilities and equipment. Real Object of Act. Mr. Parry said the real object of the new Act was to provide for the maintenance and the improvement of the physical well-being .of the people by means of physical training, exercise, sport and recreation and related social activities. Everything that tended to take people out into the open . air was within the scope of the new Act. One of the obstacles he had to face in bringing this home to people was a state of mind among some of those associated with particular forms of health and welfare activities —a spirit of misunderstanding and intolerance. He referred to a letter written in Wellington by Dr, M. B. Tweed, permanent medical adviser to the Plunket Society, who stated that to confuse sport with physical fitness was gross ignorance and that if the physique of men and women were to be improved a Start would have to be made with babies and school children. . The Government did not need to be told this, and Mr. Parry said that if Dr. Tweed had followed the progress of the campaign which culminated in the passing of the Act he would have realised how well aware the Government was that the Act was only one move in a national campaign for better health. The Act was complementary to the activities of the Departments of Health and Education, nor was the Act going to interfere with the operations of the Plunket Society and other similar bodies.

The fact of the matter was that the wonderful work done by such bodies was largely frustrated by the fact that as the children grew up they partly lost the opportunity and partly the desire to take the elementary precautions provided by rational physical exercise to maintain health.

The work of the council, however, would not be confined to adults. Young people after school age, those still within school age who had started work, and school children after school hours were beyond the jurisdiction of the educational authorities. An essential part of the council’s activities would be the encouragement or provision of play facilities for children and the guidance of their play. In addition a very greatly increased number of children’s playgrounds with proper equipment had to be provided and a sufficient number of skilled young people to be in charge of these grounds had to be secured. There also had to be an increasingly large number, particularly in the towns, of open, grassy spaces, where all children could indulge their natural bent for play. One of the most important works ahead of the council was to bo a campaign of propaganda to rouse in the people as a whole the realisation of the value of indulging in physical exercises and recreation.