"THE PLAY SPIRIT"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 150, 22 December 1922, Page 18

"THE PLAY SPIRIT"

SOUND ADVICE TO STUDENTS SPORTSMANSHIP AND COMMERCE. An inspiring appeal to the scholars to play the game through life was made by Professor Shelley,- of Canterbury College, at the prize-giving ceremony of the Palmerston North Boys' High School, last week "(states the "Manawatu Standard"). Professor Shelley's address was based on "The Play Spirit." Referring to the school motto, "Nihil boni sine labore" (nothing gained without labour), he remarked that the word "labour" had, for the purpose of his address, better be deleted, and the word "work" used. in. its plaoe, as the former had, in these days, come to mean something different from the latter expression. Labour must be guided in the right direction. They should each remember that, in building their lives, they had to consider the question from two standpoints like the.y_ would the building of a city. There was much more chance for the practical application of their motto now that tho world was starting on a nsw and difficult age. In history they found that the pendulum had Wung from oneside to the other. : This was called a revolution or a renaissance, the renais--1 sance in England in the 16th century being an example of this swing of .the pendulum. The recent war was the end of the old swinsj, and the world was now starting to swing the other way. One indication of this was in the schools; educators' were. adopting a new attitude to their profession. They no loiiger regarded themselves as little martinets who looked upon the pupils as little worms, who had to be fed. with morsels o£ . intellectual knowledge. Teachers, nowadays, were co-adventurers with their pupils, and they had to embrace the pupils in the educational scheme. Another. indication '■ of■ :. the world change, the professor continued,- was. the breakine down of our political institutions, there being a tendency foe people to serve their: own interests, instead .of those for the benefit of- the community. They must see to it that the school "play spirit'V was carried beyond it and into the adult fields, and if, at tho present time,' they could apply the standards of fair play to politics and business; they would have the millennium here in no time. Tho commercial spirit had crept in. British commerce, said the speaker, had always been associated with 'sportsmanship. British merchants had.gone out into the world with that' spirit' in .their hearts ; that was why we were such good colonisers, and the cause of the requests of . native rapes to be' placed. under British protection. The time was coming when the sportsman's spirit would be. needed in the world more -than.ever before, and jf they faced the difficult problems ahead in. that spirit they, would get safely through, but .if, on the..other, hand, they faced the difficulties -with the commercial spirit uppermost it would indeed be difficult to say what would happen. It might mean the decay of civilisation. The problems in the, world had a : close relationship with' the quo of winning a shield for the school,' inasmuch as they had to work and train "to overcome - all obstacles in both. Life went on like a. game of football —they could place a man here and one there, but when the game' advanced they found, perhaps, that the other men adopted tactics which were unknown to the others, and unless -they all de-. veloped, in the. fullest; sense, their intellect and mentality they would never succeed in dealing successfully with the problems of life. Many, of .'the boys in the school felt, no doubt, that they "had come to view things from a different standpoint; they. thought .about ; things that had not occurred to them twelve months previously;, they felt as though they had suddenly grown up, and that all they had to do was to conquer the world, which they might consider was an easy thing to do. As with the change' of outlook in boys, so with the world,to-day; and if they could only face this change in the "play spirit" they, would ■ make civilisation what it had never been before. A good deal was heard about freedom, but the only freedom lay in organisation, with every. man conscious of his right place in the world. When this was done, then could they say that they were really free. .. !