PHYSICAL CULTURE JOB

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 5

PHYSICAL CULTURE JOB

LOVELOCK .SUGGESTED DIRECTOR IN DOMINION (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. The belief that the New Zealand runner. J. E. Lovelock, the Olympic champion, may be appointed on the conclusion of his medical studies iu England to a new Government position in the Dominion is held in some quarters. It is suggested that behind the Government’s action in inviting him to visit the Dominion, there may he something more than the desire to'reward him for lvis 'achievements. The proposal has been made to the Government that physical culture in its various forms in New Zealand should be co-ordinated under one supervising body in accordance with the methods adopted in some European countries, and that sport and recreation in the Dominion should be organised with a view to aiding the physical development of the people. It is understood that the secretary ol the New Zealand Olympic Council, Mr. H. Amos, has suggested in official quarters and with strong backing that a new Government department should be created with this object in view and that Mr. Lovelock should he its head. The Minister of Health, the lion. P. Fraser, is reported to have discussed the proposal with the Olympic Council, and to have expressed himself as being impressed with the idea. TRAINING IN SCHOOLS STATE GRANTS ASKED Stressing the importance of “physical education, the conference of the Technical Education Association at Wellington unanimously decided to ask the Government to make grants toward the erection and equipment of gymnasia and swimming baths at post-primary schools. The question arose through three different remits which were taken together. Dr llanscn, principal of the Christchurch Technical College, said he considered that gymnastics and physical culture were most, important. Ihe teachci in charge- of physical culture- at the Christchurch Technical College had recently visited Scandinavian countries and had been amazed to note the attention given to physical training there. One teacher had complained bitterly that only three hours a week tor each class was given for physical training, whereas in New Zealand there was a tendency to consider half an hour a class a week sufficient. The same teacher had attended a refresher course in North Sweden and there the leader, who had done the same exercises as the refreshers, was aged 65 and all the teachers were women over 40 years of ago. New Zealand had need to lake stock ot the position. Physical training classes, were resorted to as a, means ol raising the standard of fitness of C2 men during the war, hut it should not he lett until times of national emergency to pay attention to physical training either of school pupils or of adults.