WORK AND PLAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19386, 22 July 1926, Page 6

WORK AND PLAY.

Sir, —Apparently it has become fashionable in certain quarters to bewail the modern prevalence of " the sporting mind " and quite naturally when the pace gets too hot, those with the least wind are first to cry out, "Stop." I notice also that the people most loudly crying a halt are those who derive their incomes from interest upon investment in various ways. It is a queer world my masters that we live in and pay rent for. The class that work hard get nothing to fight for, and the class that fight have got nothing to work for. Seemingly nature will have its way with us and those who have to work fight to get on the tote while the other fellows worry to get the workers to stop the stop-work meetings: "0 tempora. 0, mores." No; young New Zealand is not lazy; it is only a bit silly; it has become so accustomed to seeing three meals upon the table each day that it puts football upon a higher plane than food, and rightly so. But the food must also be thought about and our educational system does not help much in this direction while it nearly deifies sport. Young New Zealand, if it must manufacture dividends, is going to make sure of its amusements, so let the critics " hop along " and help to keep these amusements as clean as possible and in due bounds. In this connection the bulletin on our national progress drawn up bv the Economic Department of Canterbury College is probably telling the right tale of our efforts (1) Production per head lower than before the war; (2) real wage and standard of comfort of workers lower than before the war; (3) a drift from directly productive industries to those only indirectly productive; (4) everybody in the civic service doing well; (5) those engaged in the " primary industries," doing their best to keep New Zealand in food and clothes and pay the civil servants and the national interest. But while we are thus " going to the dogs" the private wealth, according to the Government Statistician, has increased from £285 millions in 1914 to £758 millions in 1925, so is it anv wonder if we buy surprise packets and keep fast horses ? Those who don t like races should read in your issue of Julv 6 the defence ,of the Rev. Hall, ot Colombo, of his presence upon a racecourse and the Rev. Burnard Bell s declaration at Albany (New York) summer school, that God's laws are not limited by geography and that if it was not sinful to drink in Britain it was not even in America. Of course all this is a terrible heresy, but if the boys—old and young—will just work as well as plav. I have no doubt but that good old' Daisy, the butter-fat queen, will pull us through if we feed her well and don t gamble. - E.N.D.