EVENING POST. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1937. WHITHER SPORT ?

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 8

EVENING POST. SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1937. WHITHER SPORT ?

Two aspects of sport, the national and the international, were presented to the public this week in Wellington by persons in a position to speak with some authority;. Addressing a gathering representative of those in control of sport in the Dominion, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) made a serious plea for the establishment of a National Council of Sport, prefaced impressively with these words:

I have called you together in order to outline in general my views on the physical well-being of the nation and to' discuss with you the formation of a national body whose object will ba the encouragement and. development of all sport, with the co-operation of all the different sports bodies and the co-ordination of all their activities.

The Minister briefly gave reasons for the step proposed, and outlined plans which the sports bodies will consider and on which they will submit views to a conference to be held later. The proceedings mark the recognition by the State of the organisation and furtherance of sport as a national function, a policy novel to New Zealand, but not to several European countries, where national organisation already exists. A similar movement for the encouragement of sport has been inaugurated in Britain. The object there, as here and elsewhere, is the physical fitness of the nation. The idea is to start in the schools, if not before, and continue the process . right through life. In Mr. Parry's words:

The national organisation will control the physical education and instruction of children so long as they remain at school. After that it will become the responsibility of. the various sports bodies to organise their national sports so as to keep the young people fit during the rest of their lives.

Such is the ideal ,of a national organisation of all sport. Internationally sport has gradually been organised on the expanding scale of big business. One of its ideals was the/promotion of international amity through the friendly rivalry of games and the spread of the sporting spirit and the atmosphere Jof fair play. This was in the mind'of Baron Pierre de Coubertin when he set out, forty-five years ago, to revive the Olympic Games, the true spirit of which has never been more nobly expressed than in his words:

The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but tp take part. The important thing in life is not.the triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well. To spread these precepts is to build a stronger and more valiant and, above all. a*-more scrupulous and more generous humanity. . . . Before all things •it is necessary that we should preserve in sport those characteristics of nobility and chivalry which have distinguished it in the past, so that it may • continue to play the same part in the education of the peoples of today as it played so admirably in the days of Ancient Greece.

It was the hope of Baron de Coubertin and his fellow-idealists that international sport, as exemplified in the Olympic Games and other contests, would promote international understanding and good will. On this second aspect of sport Dr. J. Inglis Robertson, of Sydney, addressing the Rotary Conference in Wellington this week, said: I very much fear that those who look to sport to bring about a better understanding between nations are leaning upon a very broken reed. There is, I think, much less chance of modern sport exerting a beneficial influence upon nations than there was years ago. . . . Competitions such as the Olympic Games, begun in a wonderful spirit of unselfish and sporting rivalry and intended to perpetuate that spirit, could and should exert a wonderful influence for good. Unfortunately in recent years they have assumed a tendency to make for bitterness and ill-feeling between nations, and it is a terrible pity that it is so.

That it is so nobodyNwill seriously doubt. There have been only too many instances that rankle in the minds of nations and for that reason need not be recalled. Now, it might seem that there was slight connection, if any, between the proposals of Mr. Parry for the national organisation of sport in New Zealand and the failure of international sport to foster international amity and promote the comity of nations. To establish a National Council of Sport is to take sport seriously, very seriously. Yet see what follows, according to Dr. ■Robertson:

Sport today is a very serious business; it is organised to the last degree to win. It is a serious business' for the competitors, who. to do any good must devote practically their: whole time'to it. It is a serious business for the spectators.. The result is ■ taken very seriously indeed.

How seriously all know who liave followed the cricket Tests in Australia, now, perhaps, happily over. The strain has been so severe that the English captain, G. 0. Allen, almost broke down at the finish, but fortunately did nothing to perpetuate the painful memory of a previous tour. How seriously was made clear at the last Olympic Games at Berlin where national athletic prowess was organised to the last detail, with the hostess nation setting the example. Cases of friction, "feeling," and "regrettable incidents" could be quoted in almost every form of international sport in the last few years—the same

years in which sport has become nationally and internationally organised. It does not, of course, follow that two processes lhat march together in time are linked together in the relation of cause and effect, hut there is very | grave suspicion, amounting almost to conviction, that the tension in sport, of which there is no doubt, is due to the organisation described. The original Olympic Games of classic days were a religious festival and as such served a religious purpose and promoted peace. Where games were organised professionally, as in the circuses of the Roman Erai pire, they led to frightful abuses, satirised by Juvenal, and later to outbreaks of rival factions, .ending in much bloodshed. Modern sports and games were all a natural growth, mostly in Britain, and revealed their spirit best under .natural conditions, cricket on the village green in England, Rugby* in the bush clearing in New Zealand, golf on the dunes, and tennis on the private lawn. The further they get away from these conditions, the greater the danger of departure from the essential spirit of sport. Organisation came first with voluntary participation in play, and the growth of the team spirit and association in clubs. The advance of organisation since, though it has brought difficulties, has also conferred benefits by providing the incentive and extending the opportunities for greater numbers to take part. It can continue to-be beneficial if those who guide it are alert to seize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls on the path. The physical well-being of the nation, Mr. Parry believes, requires that sport should be nationally organised. The goal of physical fitness is worth striving for, and all who recognise its value will, wish Mr. Parry success. The greatest success will be if the national organisation is achieved and its benefits made available for young and old without impairing the spirit of freedom which is the life of sport.