DEGENERATE SPORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2506, 2 April 1902, Page 60

DEGENERATE SPORT.

So Kipling's been having a cut at the ball! Yet stinging as it may be, The spoil of our nation is scarcely all That manly sport should be. 'Tis pity that people should bother Themselves about turning on Kip. On- fact is there wasn't another Concerning the need of the whip l \V" need waking up, we need shaking up; The spa it in the towns, li-"tead of " faking ' up, needs breaking up, Like they bicak up the sward on the downs. The- standard of nlc-a = vie is falling apace! How many would \iiit the greens Of cricVct, or e\oi fjjve football a place. Were it not for tlie betting machines' A man .should have aim somewhat higher Than chasuig stuffed leather, his lage The list of the nations lequire, The pride of an Empire ins gage. We know of a place where the gauntlet of fame I-, flung on the tuif of our land. But close by the pride of the brute — to our shame — A weed of a rider stands. That Cii bine could faultlesly battle The pace with the swiftest — what then? The price is too great if such cattle Aie bought at the cost of our men. We noed waking up, we need shaking up. The spirit an the towns, Instead of " faking " up, needs breaking up, Like they break up the sward on the downs. The cricketing fields for our youth, if you will l No poet that loves us will ban The pleasure of testing our prowess; but &Ull, Above and beyond it, the Man. 'Tib there, like an angel on duty, Where valour and peace excel, Stands Sport, iv its virgin beauty, Outside of a gambling hell. —John Maclennan. iiwck, 1802.