A Nation Which Is Celebrated In Sport

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Nation Which Is Celebrated In Sport

New Zealanders Have Shown Prowess In Many Fields

T HERE was a time, and it was only, a decade or two ago, when New Zealanders visiting Europe were horrified to discover that their country was practically unheard-of, while those with whom they came in contact expressed at least equal surprise to find New Zealanders were white folk, orthodoxly garbed and behaved, and not even visibly tattooed. ' Today the traveller who makes known that he is from New Zealand will be greeted with a knowing, “Ach, Lovelock!” or “Ha! Les All Blacks!” according to the nationality of his hearer. For not all her vast bulk of exports, nor her advanced social legislation, nor her publicity department propaganda, nor her High Commissioner in London town, has done as much to earn her fame as her ambassadors of sport, who have nobly represented her in almost every part of the world. She has won high repute, and deservedly, as a nation of sportsmen. From a population of a million and a half New Zealand has sent forth world champions, recordbreakers in many arenas, teams capable of whipping the flower of the world’s sportsmen. In Rugby, football particularly she is known as a great Dominion. It is the national winter game. Every schoolboy is a “Rugger” enthusiast; and without counting schoolboys there are in New Zealand more than 30,000 players, members of recognized clubs affiliated to the Rugby Union. The intense interest taken in this sport compares with the enthusiasm of the English over association, or cricket. Forty thousand people saw New Zealand beaten by the Springboks in the final Test match of 1937 ; 30,000 attended a provincial contest. Tennis is the principal summer sport. New Zealanders have won fame at Wimbledon, and the Dominion has been honora.bly represented in the Davis Cup matches. There are 40,060 tennis players controlled by the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, but no doubt they comprise little more than half the actual participants in the sport; thousands play on private courts, and belong to no clubs. New Zealand cricketers play a sound game, and have received most favourable criticism when touring in England and Australia, although not so far up to the first class of international cricket. J. E. Lovelock and A. E. Porritt have set. a fast pace to the track champions of other countries. Athletics have always been popular in New Zealand. Ihe wot Id sculling title has three times been fought out on New Zealand waters. Bob Fitzsimmons, world champion boxer, was a Timaru man; Tom Heeney, beaten by Gene Tunney in a match for the world heavyweight title, was from Gisborne; Ted Morgan, Olympic welterweight champion, was also a New Zealander. Baseball, polo, hockey, association, cross-country running, golf, basketball, are other notable sports that find thousands of supporters in New Zealand. Bowls, the sport of the ageing, claims 16,000 registered players. Many elderly people participate in tennis, golf and croquet. Fencing, introduced a few years ago, is making rapid progress.

These are organized sports. They are probably the most important, because they are the sports which keep the townsfolk healthy and strong, and ensure that the young folk of the country shall grow up sound of wind and limb. But New Zealand’s beautiful countryside is suited to endless other healthy outdoor pursuits. Trampers and campers find her mountains as rugged and challenging, if not quite as high, as any in the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, Rockies. Her forests and fields are alive with game—hare and rabbit, red deer and fallow, thar and chamois, moose and wapiti and wild boar, pheasant and quail, wild duck, swan, and wild goose, godwit and pukeko. Trout and salman tipple in her streams, swordfish, tunny and mackerel shark, and a host of smaller fry, are taken off her coasts. The yachtsmen find in her harbours and coastal seas the finest cruising waters in the Seven Seas, with sheltered anchorages in deep fiords as rich in history as in beauty.

Riding and hunting are common sports in a country of born horsemen.. Horse-racing is'a national pastime, and £4,000,000 or more passes through the. totalisator in a single year. Deer-stalking has deteriorated since the herds became a nuisance, and today the difficulty is in keeping down their numbers. For those who are hardy and enjoy tramping over rough country, there are miles and miles of lonely ranges barely explored, and offering strange experiences to the adventurous —the mysterious Urewera, the forests of South Westland, where live, perhaps, the last takahe, and the lost tribe of Ngatimamoe.