GAME IN THE SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 23

GAME IN THE SCHOOLS

Mr. Milburn mentioned by name only one New Zealand secondary school, the Otago Boys' High School, and he did so to bestow upon it the highest praise. There, he said, the pupils play Rugby, Soccer, and hockey, with equal enthusiasm, competitors in one sport taking the greatest interest in the success of their comrades in the others, as is only natural with true sportsmen. Because there were three sports being played in the college during the winter, said Mr. Milburn, there were very few boys not actively participating in games, and that was all for the benefit of the boys and the school.

Contrast Otago's success in sport with the intolerant atttitude of other schools who will not allow their pupils to play Soccer. There can be no question of which is right..

In England, of course, the game is played by all classes, and proof of Us success at centres of learning is the fact that the two managers of the visiting English team, and at least four of its players, are or were Universitymen. Mr. Wreford Brown is an Oxford Blue and Mr. T. Thorne a Cambridge Blue. Woolcock is the present captain of Cambridge, for which University Strasser and Sutcliffe have played, while Leek has represented the British Universities. Their counterparts in New Zealand do not exist, partly because Soccer is not" our national game, .but also partly because of the unfair opposition of some schoolmasters.

CONTRAST WITH ENGLAND

Speaking at the complimentary dinner, given by the New Zealand Football Association last Saturday night to the English and Wellington elevens, Mr. J. A. Milburn, chairman of the council o£ the N.Z.F.A., touched upon an evergreen topic—that of Soccer in the secondary schools. On this subject the Englishmen, representing as they do all sections of the British community, irirflioing-tha great publjic schools and Universities, must be surprised at the unreasonable opposition which faces their rational game in some of New Zealand's colleges.