A NEW DEVELOPMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 9

A NEW DEVELOPMENT

YOUNG PEOPLE'S RECREATION

Recently the Labour Department, through its Youth Centres, conducted investigations, into the leisure-time activities of youths and girls in New Zealand. This inquiry showed a most marked deficiency in hobbies, reading, and wholesome social activities. Of'the 1157 youths and girls interviewed a large number indulged in no wholesome recreative activity/ whatever.

The Physical Welfare and Recreation Branch, following this report; has made the organising of recreation clubs one of the main planks in its platform. The pioneer effort in this direction is the boys' club formed in Invercargill by the Southland Recreation Officer. It is reported that already the physique and health of the boys have shown noticeable improvement. Boys who found themselves with nothing to dp',in the evenings now occupy their leisure hours with recreation in various forms at the club. The branch does not intend to compete with existing organisations and as every person engaged in social welfare knows, there is an unexploited field large enough to occupy all the attention that can be brought, $o bear for years to con?"