THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1906. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE RACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13134, 24 March 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1906. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE RACE.

Physical culture, as a part of the education of the young, is one of the new discoveries of our time. The public schools of England, indeed, have for the last three, hundred years been famous for a kind of irregular physical culture, which sometimes produced excellent results in the case of the comparatively small class which attended those schools ; but this was no part of the recognised training which the schools

afforded, and, excepting that it was [ enforced by public opinion among J

the scholars, was not compulsory upon any of them. Education, then and even now, amongst a large class of our. people has meant the training and development" of the mental powers of the young, where it did not have the still more inadequate meaning of some instruction in the most elementary subjects of human ' knowledge. It is only within the last few years that public opinion has sWlnvn a tendency to take a wider view of education than this ; and civilisation may be congratulated on die change. It may be due in part to the general increase, of scientific knowledge ; it may also be due to common-sense observation, and to statistical research, that it has begun to dawn on the nations which consider themselves most civilised that, if civilisation is not to become the stepping-stone downwards towards national decay, they must recognise the fact that the body is as certainly a necessary part of humanity as the mind. The les- j son is an old one indeed. It has been taught and forgotten many times, even in the short annals of recorded history, between the time when the hardy Persians overthrew Babylonish civilisation, and the other day, when the hardy little soldiers of . Japan defeated the Russian armies in Manchuria. But it is a lesson which civilisation cannot af- i ford to forget ; and least of all in theoe days of teeming populations when, say what we will, all reasonable indications point to a period when civilisation may again have to hold its own against barbaric force, or again be swept away, as it has been so often before. In such an emergency, should it arise, men will be needed—men who are in every way fitted for the task, it may be, of defending their countries against overwhelming force, and not merely men whose minds have been trained, but whose bodies also have been made the most of. ' It is here that the value of the new appreciation of physical culture becomes apparent. The last century saw the acceptance by most civilised nations of the truth that it was necessary to extend education to all classes of their people, if they would not be left behind in the race of progress ; it has been left for this century to discover that such an education will be one-sided, and possibly even in some ways hurtful to society, if it does not include the training and development of the body along with that of the mind.

Physical culture must, of course, suppose the existence of a physique in such a condition as to be capable of the most successful development® and in the older civilised countries this may well prove a serious difficulty in the way of effective reform. The conditions of great cities, wh6re so large a percentage of their population is assembled, are, as a rule, unfavourable to the physical development of the young. The crowded slums of London and other great cities must of themselves tend to deteriorate . the young who.- are brought up there, even if the efforts which humanity and common sense are now making to see that schoolchildren/are fed in some degree adequately should prove successful. Good air as well as reasonable exercise, good food as well as careful physical training, must go to the building up of a people strong enough in body to make the best use of a well-trained mind. In NewZealand we are fortunate in meeting j the problem in its .simplest form. We have as yet no slums where fresh air is excluded ; and as yet no class of our people is so poor as to be unable to supply its children with

wholesome food. Our climate, too, is one which seems peculiarly suited to develop the physical qualities for which the race was for centuries .renowned throughout Europe. In the case of the young people of NewZealand what is needed is training the best and most efficient training in all that goes to the development of the powers and energies of a physique which is naturally good and is not hampered by injurious conditions; and it is a hopeful sign that attention is now being given to the subject. Something has been done towards bringing about this result already, indeed. We have our drill in the public schools, and our physical exercises in many, if not all, of them, conducted by (he teachers. So far as it goes this is good, and has undoubtedly bad its share in the development of our young people, which is a subject of observation by our many visitors. This is well : but as yet it is very far from the best, that may be done. In this newer anil brighter England we must not be content with good results as long as better are possible •of attainment; and they certainly are so in this matter of physical training. It is a curious illustration of the curiously low estimation in which this important part of education has been held that while we have had many grades and many examinations of teachers in matters of men- | tal instruction, we have evidently | thought anybody could give instrucI tion in what is needed to develop j the bodily powers. Lessons in physical culture are given, indeed, but they are very largely given by teachers who know very little of the subject, and can therefore do very little for their pupils. The suggestions made by the representatives of the Physical Culture Society the other day on this subject are certainly worthy of prompt attention. Our public school system is already one of which the colony maybe proud. We are doing much to make our young people intelligent citizens. We must be careful that we do not make them one-sided. We need men and women here who are not merely intelligent, but physically strong and vigorous. We" want men ready and able to go on the land and do good work there, and not merely to stay in our towns and work at our desks; and we wantwomen ready and able to lie!]) them in this natural and vigorous life. Education—the new education—if it is to meet the needs of the time, must fully recognise the truth that the mind of our people, if it is to be vigorous and healthy, must re- 1 side in healthy and vigorous bodies. -