The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1925. SCHOOL ATHLETES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 18 December 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1925. SCHOOL ATHLETES.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, ElthAm. Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton. Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraaer Road, aDd Ararats.

Congratulations are due to the teaeheis and pupils of the Okaiawa. and Mokoia schools on their sterling victories in the Dixon Banner and Bennett and Sutton Cup competition on Wednesday. The South Taranaki Schools’ Athletic Championships were a splendid success from every point of view, but in no respect more so than in the line showing made by country competitors. The idea of holding these annual sports contests (fid not originate in this district; but it can with safety be said that in no other quarter of the Dominion is the interest so well spread. Several of the larger towns run huge children’s sports meetings, but seldom are competitors drawn from outside the town itself; and few of the smaller centres have taken up the idea. Certainly none of them has taken it up with greater enthusiasm than Hawera. It happens always that schools have their ups and downs, both athletically and scholastically, and this year Okaiawa has been exceptionally strong. Its record on the sports fields of 1925 will remain one of the headlines in the school’s traditions; but that record has been won in a manurr which banishes envy from the hearts of rivals and urges them to combine in extending the hand of congratulation to the Red and Blacks. On Wednesday one or two competitors were mainly instrumental in bringing the honours to their respective schools; but in every ease equal credit is due to those girls and boys who honestly did their best and failed. The aim of the schools’ sports is to help in building up healthy bodies and sound characters, and both these ends may be served without winning. The men and women this world has need of are the triers more than the winners. Only one boy can win a race, but twenty, or thirty, or forty can he triers. The boys for whom their school and the world has no word of thanks arc those who do not give of their best; but none of those were competitors on Wednesday. Nor was there any lack of trying among the girls. The case of Mokoia offered a good example of co-operation between girls and hoys for the common cause. A girl won the bulk of the school’s points, but two boys added those nc< ess ary to give a safe margin over the closest competing team. On so pleasant a day and in the midst of such infectious enthusiasm, one hardly missed the public; yet that was the one cause for regret. The sports were not supported as they should have been. But what of that? The apathy of the people cannot detract from the worth of the gathering. The sports would still have been successful without one single adult onlooker. It was the girls’ and boys’ day, and they made it what it was.