PHYSICAL FITNESS FIRST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 40, 16 August 1937, Page 8

PHYSICAL FITNESS FIRST

In commenting last week on the recommendations of the New Zealand Olympic Association to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr; Parry) in regard to the proposed Council of Sport, we noted what appeared to be an uncertainty as to the proper objective of such a body. Was it sport or was it the physical fitness of the people? The recommendation^ were not quite clear on this point, and, holding, as we do, that physical fitness, above all others, should be the] paramount purpose of any national scheme of sports organisation, we expressed that view strongly. In a letter, published in another column today, Mr. H. Amos, who has long played a leading part in the organisation of athletics, puts, as he desires, the Olympic Association quite "on side." The association is all for physical fitness, and this objective could not be better set forth than in the following passage of Mr. Amos's letter:

The Olympic Association, at its various meetings to formulate its recommendations, emphasised the fact that it was not the organisation of sport that was wanted so much as the recognition of the necessity for physical exercise and organised recreational games in order to promote better average health and fitness, and to do something to reduce the increasing and alarming expenditure on public and mental hospitals.

This is exactly the position. There is a general impression abroad that the average health of the community is not what it ought to be in a country like New Zealand, and that there is something wrong when extensions of public hospitals are demanded on a scale quite beyond what the growth of population should normally require. ■ There is also the Government's national health scheme with a likelihood of further expense. Any proposal for a "National Council of Physical Health and Recreation," on the lines adopted in Britain, under the "Physical Training and Recreation Bill," and approved by the Olympic Association, with its emphasis on physical fitness, should help to raise, the genera] standard of health and thus relieve, by preventive methods, the present and prospective cost to the community in sickness and treatment. The methods contemplated are fully explained by Mr. Amos. They consist, mainly, of "organised recreational games," quite apart from our national games, capable , of being carried out with "simple and inexpensive gear" in "very limited areas." The national games, with the generous support of the public, can be trusted to look after themselves. All .that is required from them is a moderate extension of facilities for those who wish to play, but cannot now for lack of opportunity. The real emphasis, however, should be on physical fitness and development, the "sound body," if all else is to be sound, and in pursuing this objective, we feel that the Olympic Association and other bodies with similar views can rely on the support of the public and the Press which Mr. Amos, in his concluding Svords, bespeaks.