Physical Welfare Council

Northern Advocate, 25 May 1938, Page 6

Physical Welfare Council

i T-cr Press Association. Copyright.! Vv£[.LINGTON. This Day. The first meeting of the National Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation was held yesterday at Parliament House. The Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, the chairman, made it plain in his address that it was not intended that the council should have a sports contest bias. The real objective was to produce a nation of (it people able to fill any place in society and ready for any emergency. , He conveyed the best wishes of the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, to the council. The Prime | Minister, he said, assured them that he would do all he could to assist the organisation in the attainment of its objective. Much To Be Done.

There were gymnasiums, swimming baths, sports grounds and buildings to be constructed, and all the necessary equipment to be obtained. That, in itself, would entail work and service in which everyone could play a part-employers and employees. There was much for the council to do even at the first meeting. He felt they could share each other’s confidence in the success they looked for in their work.

"I sincerely believe that so pronounced are the feelings of the people in their support of the council’s objective, that success will be achieved from the beginning of its efforts,” the Minister continued. “The prosperity, happiness, health and physique of New Zealanders do matter. It has been said that the way to think in New Zealand is to think of New Zealanders. That was the council’s objective. To promote a clean, physically fit. healthy, tolerant and moral nation will be the guiding principles of our work. All our efforts will be directed toward that great objective.

Ten Years Hence

The Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser, who also addressed the council, said that what the future would mean to the people in the way of physical education, what it would bring forth, would depend to a very great extent on the efforts of the council. The members had a great work and responsibility. If he might, dip into the .future, he would say that ten years from now a wonderful transformation would have taken place. The members of the council were entering upon a work that would create, he believed, a new era, and bring happiness and enjoyment to the community.

Mr Fraser wished the council’s work the success it deserved.