SPORT AND DEPORTMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1937, Page 12

SPORT AND DEPORTMENT

An observation by the general secretary of the Y.W.C.A.' (Miss Elsie Bennet), in -an interview at Auckland, that.girls in New Zealand lack poise and posture and that young people ought to be taught more about'these attributes merits attention. If by poise and posture is meant what used to be called deportment, when it was an essential part in the education of young people, particularly girls, then, we feel, the truth of the observation will be generally admitted. As Miss Bennet noted, it is unusual to find go.od posture in New Zealand, and it is more than probable that visitors from abroad have remarked on it. A few years ago a party of English public school girls toured the Dominion and while they were in Wellington it was always possible to pick them out in the street by their carriage and bearing, showing that they had been taught to hold themselves erect and walk properly. Such arts and graces appear'to have been neglected in this country. How they are to be acquired is another matter. Miss Bennet rather emphasised sport for girls, while deprecating spasmodic participation, due to seasonal interest. She was also opposed to regimentation in tlie shape of the proposed national organisation of sport. We are inclined to doubt whether games in themselves make for the desired poise and posture. Few games provide for exercise of all the muscles in due proportion, and proficiency in any game is not necessarily a synonym for all-round development and physical symmetry and grace. As a matter of fact, the nations which most excel in these respects, the Scandinavians, have attained that pre-eminence, not by games, but by a devotion to physical training which begins early in life and is carried through the schools until good habits of deportment become instinctive. This is not to disparage games/which have their own important function as recreation, but to emphasise that if deportment is desired other means must be adopted as well. New I Zealand has room for both.