COUNCIL OF SPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 10

COUNCIL OF SPORT

MINISTER'S PROPOSAL

MORE DETAILS WANTED

COMING CONFERENCE

c When in March of this year the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) placed his proposal for the establishment of a national council of sport before the meeting of representatives of New Zealand and Wellington controlling bodies of. sport, . the Minister said he anticipated criticism. And criticism there has been c . from this sp.orts body and that when s the scheme in broad outline ,has been o discussed since the Wellington meett, ing. The criticism in great part has r been that the Minister has given sports bodies nothing definite to work upon; s in other words, that he was too geni- eral in his statements at the Welling- '• ton conference. '•■ '" This in the main is the fault which j has been found, although at the time c when the : Minister delivered his ad- '- dress he stressed the point that he was 0 not at the moment so concerned about j dotting all the i's and crossing all the 1 t's as he was to give them an outline c of the physical and mental requires ments of the nation and to have the ■- co-operation of the sports associations f in setting up machinery to carry out f this national work, the importance of ; which countries overseas had recog--1 nised. 2 REPORTS RECEIVED. 1 While there has been the criticism —some of it quite recently—it is evident that some of the national associations, at any rate, have shown a practical desire to co-operate with the Min- [ ister, and when the conference he has . called for August 17 is held it is .-ix--1 pected that the representatives of the . various sports organisations will have ; before them a number of reports from ] various national sports associations con- , taining valuable suggestions, which if not wholly acceptable will at least pro- , vide the basis for valuable discussion. . With these reports before them delegates may perhaps be prepared to settle | down to discussion in earnest with a I view to formulating some practical schemes, but on the other hand indica- , tions are not lacking that the confer- , ence may also be the place at which '. some very pertinent questions will be , asked by the Minister. Evidence of this is available from a report of a 1 meeting held in Christchurch this week and attended by over 40 delegates, representing 17 sporting organisations in Christchurch, to discuss the national sports council proposal. The meeting lasted nearly two hours, and at it the following resolution was passed:—"Whilst keen to do anything to encourage the pursuit of sport as a recreation, this meeting of representatives of sports bodies in Christchurch is not prepared to express any opinion on the formation of a national council of sport until definite information as to the proposals, of the Minister, including details of the working of the scheme, are available." The meeting was presided over by Mr. R. J. Hobbs. who suggested that the three most important points to consider were:—(l) How would the council of sport be constituted? (2) Who would finance its operations? (3) Would it :be;;: any improvement on the present method,of controlling sport in New Zealand? : , A FALLACY. "The Minister has fallen into the fallacy that you can make people healthy by regulation," said Mr. D. E. Wanklyn (New Zealand Cricket Council). The view of the New Zealand Cricket Council, he added,-was that the proposed organisation should be purely a Government Department and its functions should be solely educational. He could not ■• see how interference with the control of the various forms of recreation and sport, as they were played at present, would bring any beneficial result. ! It is evident from other parts of the report, as it has been from certain other criticism, that any step taken by the Government to help financially and provide with grounds those sports bodies which are in need of help in this direction will receive solid backing from them. The bigger sports bodies do not" appear to have been so enthusiastic. This is how Mr. J. M. Coffey, representing the New Zealand Cycling Federation, summed up the situation as he saw it at the Christchurch meeting: ,

"Some of us have been too pessimistic, some have been looking for more for themselves, and some have been looking for a : catch in the proposal. The smaller sporting bodies have been looking for finance and the bigger organisations have been afraid of losing something," he added.

It would appear then that before the conference next month, or perhaps subsequently, a committee of the conference can get down to draw up a workable plan it will be necessary to clear away any differences that exist. Another point which will have to be disposed of concerns the question of amateur and professional representation on any national body. Any proposal that they should function together is likely to lead to difficulties, and conceivably also to complications if competition or contests with .overseas amateurs is taken into account. This is a point which it is known is exercising the minds of administrators in one particular field. Besides details of administration others are calling for details of finance to be made known before any drastic change' is made in the present system of control.

The conference on August 17, in the light of the position as it is at the moment, promises to be one of considerable interest.