PHYSICAL WELFARE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23351, 17 November 1937, Page 10

PHYSICAL WELFARE

A distinguished health authority, Professor Harvey Sutton, of Sydney University, who is at present visiting New Zealand, asks whether it is possible to devise some way of spending leisure which, while inexpensive and convenient, will conduce to both mental and physical improvement and to the evolution of a better type of citizen. The question, in point of fact, is one that is engaging the attention of the Government. The Physical Welfare and Recreation Bill is before Parliament at the present time, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, in whose name the measure has been introduced, has appealed for " greater interest among the people in fostering health-building activities." There can be no possible objection to .the Bill in principle. The health of the nation is a matter /of the first importance, and any movement directed to secure higher general standards of physical fitness merits the approval of all classes in the community. It could be wished, nevertheless, that the Minister in charge of this interesting and important measure would speak in more specific terms of what the Government hopes to accomplish and of the lines on which it intends to proceed. The Bill itself, as has been said by Mr Hargest, is merely a machinery measure. It provides for the creation of a National Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation, defines to some extent the functions of that body, indicates the part that local authorities and voluntary organisations may play in promoting a national fitness campaign, and deals with certain other administrative aspects of the Government's plan. But of the plan itself little or nothing has so far been heard, although the impression appears to be that the Government will rely in the main on the encouragement of sport for the achievement of its objective. We have suggested before that a national health campaign, if it is to be really effective, requires to be established on a much broader basis than that of actual physical exercise. The Minister says that the movement is going to cost a lot of money. There will be little objection to that if the money is wisely spent, but it will not be wisely spent if the purely educational aspect is neglected or receives insufficient attention. Lord Horder, speaking, recently on the British campaign, declared that the economic side of making a nation fit was intimately bound up with problems of food production, food distribution and food usage. Mr Parry submits that there must be nation-wide enthusiasm for the work that he is promoting. If there is the realisation that such enthusiasm must spread to the homes of the people, that they must be encouraged—taught, if needs be—to eat, drink and sleep intelligently as well as to exercise intelligently, then valuable results may be expected from the campaign upon which the Government is embarking.