USE OF LEISURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22971, 24 February 1938, Page 15

USE OF LEISURE

CHALLENGE OF TO-DAY FILLING OR KILLING TIME ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUBS [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] CHItISTCHUKCH, Wednesday "Leisure is a challenge to society to sot its house in order, and a challenge to man to he himself,." said Mr. E. N. Hogben, of Danncvirkc, addressing the conference of New Zealand Rotary Clubs. "The right use of leisure is becoming one of the greatest and most important problems facing civilisation." The challenge of leisure, Mr. Hogben said, was twofold —to see that every man and woman had enough leisure and to see that that leisure was used rightly. The first of these challenges could be answered in several ways. Leisure could be distributed piecemeal by reduction of the weekly and daily hours, it could bo taken in large blocks by means of long vacations, or it could bo concentrated in extended periods by increasing the amount of leisure available before the working life began. Magnitude of Problem The second part of the challenge resolved itself into a question, "Is it to be time filled or timo killed?" Could the problem bo met by increasing the number of golf courses, enlarging the grandstands of football grounds, and building more picture theatres? If wo thought that it could, we did not appreciate the magnitude of the problem. Mr. Hogben suggested four heads under which the right use of leisure might fall. In the first placo leisure should bo used to maintain physical fitness. His second suggestion was that leisure should be used for recreation and relaxation. For many people outlet must be had for creative activities outside daily work, and it had to bo remembered that interest in the cinema and radio were passive interests. The Mass Mind Education was a third and allimportant use for leisure. It was essential to fight against the mass mind. We were living in a "switch it on and put me through" era, and it was apparent that education eoukl be used to counteract and overcome this aimlessness that Avas such a feature of modern life. -Citizenship was the fourth suggested use for leisure. Democracy could be preserved only by the intelligence of the people participating in it. Mr. Hogben was thanked for his address, ou the motion of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan.