ETHICS OF SPORT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22172, 27 July 1935, Page 17

ETHICS OF SPORT

Sir, —Many men and women I know would be all the better if they had passed through a course of athletics. Maccid muscles and flaccid principles often go together. This is not to suggest athletes are perfect, because many of them play—the wise and the foolish. With many young people athleticism seems a craze. This is the abuse of the essential thing, but it does not weaken the fact that the promotion of a healthy athleticism may be an incentive to morals and piety. The chief thing in athletics—as in most things—is to hold the balance even, and remember one has a mind to culture as well as a body. Recreation and religion are not incompatible, and the qualities the former tends to foster help to enrich character and to beautify and strengthen life. Many of the world's best scholars 'and religious enthusiasts have been first in athletics. The supreme law of sport is fairness and courtesy, and if- these two factors had fuller sway in social and national life the world would be saner and sweeter. The ideal in all competitive games should be athletic excellence and not merely the defeat of the rival. 1 think there is a higher standard of sporting ethics among school and college boys to-day as compared with the days of my youth. W. J. Elliott.