VALUE OF ATHLETICS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12354, 26 January 1926, Page 6

VALUE OF ATHLETICS

PRESIDENT OF N.Z.A.A.A. MR MqVILLY ' CONGRATULATED. At die reception yesterday morning t<s the visiting American athletes, by the council ot the N.Z.A.A.A., occasion was taken by Mr A. C. Kitto, on behalf of the Wellington Centre, to congratulate Mr R. W. McVilly his election to the position of president of the New Zealand Council of the Amateur Athletic Association. Mr McVilly in reply, thanked Mr Kitto for the congratulations extended. For many years, he said, he had been more or less intimately connected with athletics in New Zealand. He could look back to the time when athletics were practically dead in the Dominion. The old-timers who had largely got it going again were Mr Robert Bannister, the late Mr J. H. Pollock, and Messrs Speed, Compson and himself. He considered that it was up to everybody who had been athletes to come forward and do what they could to help along the good work. “I would like to say,” continued Mr McVilly, "that any person who wishes to do at all weli 'at athletics must live a decent life By promoting athletics, we are helping to raise the physical -standard of rhe country. While I hold the position of president I shall do my little bit in this direction, and trust that I shall be able to accomplish something.” (Applause.)