NOT A TRUE GUIDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27166, 23 August 1949, Page 6

NOT A TRUE GUIDE

ARMY PHYSICAL TESTS MORE OBJECTIVE METHOD WANTED PA WELLINGTON, Aug. 22. The greatest caution in drawing general conclusions from the physical examinations of army recruits at Trentham was urged by the annual conference yesterday of the National Council of the Physical Education Society of New Zealand. The council is to draw up a list of suitable tests. The council pointed out that no valid conclusions of a general nature could be drawn from the data obtained in the examination of such small numbers of men, and it set up a committee to compile a list of tests which might be used as a valid, reliable, and objective method of measuring the physical condition of boys in the 17 and 18-year-old groups. After these tests have been decided, on, the council will seek the co-opera-tion of the Education Department in applying the tests to a sufficient number of upper form boys in postprimarv schools and of training college entrants to provide a large sample of New Zealand youth. The data thus obtained should, the council believes, give a reasonably accurate estimate of the physical fitness of these groups and "indicate what line of action should beittaken. An urgent need for more trained specialists in physical education and recreation, in New Zealand was also emphasised by the conference. The Government, it was stated, had expressed concern over the poor physical condition of young people, but was doing- very little to train persons to help in ;the schools and community with that vital work.