The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1909. PHYSICAL CULTURE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13918, 1 June 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1909. PHYSICAL CULTURE.

Lord Eosebery a few months ago delivered a characteristically fine address on National Efficiency, as the need of the time, national efficiency of course being dependent upon the efficiency of; the several units of the nation, each! for his ,or her own particular duties. This efficiency is partly physical, partly mental, partly moral. The foundation, of/the two latter is the first, physical robustness and alertness. To- a considerable extent this is a. habit, and it is>v habit the development of which can be begun, and in many cases perhaps can be fixed, during the years that children spend at school; certainly, we should say, .if they remain at. school till well in their teens.

"Physical culture" is provided for tbi some extent in the syllabus of our primary schools, but it is not given the importance here that is attached to it in.New South Wales, wh tnc a National Athletfe Association ha -ur? nished programmes of exercises, . and the schools are carrying them out. • A report presented recently to the Victorian Education Department on the New South Wales system, hased upon a special enquiry by an ex-Victorian teacher, is said by the "Argus" to bo extremely interesting in its details. There is a special officer, a " superintendent of physical culture," whose duty it is to see that the work is done in a thoroughly efficient manner, and under him are three instructors . who go round the various schools. Physical drill is supposed to be taught ill the Victorian schools now, but as only 2 per cent, of marks is allotted to it, while brushwork may gain 6 per cent., the teachers naturally prefer that, their pupils should spend more time at brushwork than at dumbbell or other physical exercises. On receiving tho report above mentioned, the Minister of Education determined to improve on the local system, and set up a committee of representatives of the Department, the State Schools Athletic; Associations, and the Teachers' Associations, to see how far the New South Wales system could be wisely adopted. Tho author of the report says:—"The results of the system in vogue are most marked. The children—not special classes, but the children of the whole school—are exceedingly well set up, and march and drill excellently. I have never any school in Victoria, that contains children with the physique and general bearing that tho children had in the various schools I visited ; the best school was in one of tho poorest suburbs. The children also looked healthy and strong." Tho importance of having a good system of physical exercises in the schools in New Zealand will become greater if the idea of a national military training is adopted, for it will be a necessary part of that training if it is to be worth anything, that tho trainees shall bo made physically "fit" by their training; and it will be much easier for the drill sergeants, and much easier for the recruits, if the latter had been accustomed to some such, exorcises as would be suitable for them as recruits. One of the points that makes a proper military training worthy of the praises bestowed upon it for its benefit to the individual, is that it tends to make "fitness" a habit, by destroying any tendency to slouchiness in movement, to develop and fix a habit of alertness of both body and mind. It may be —it is to be hoped it will be—the case that our future "territorials" will never be called out to shoot anyone and face the risk of> being shot, and that being so the personal benefit of training should bo given a prominent place in the pro-gtra-mlno to be "prepared for them. In the meantime the education authorities might give some attention to tho future demands upon their charges, as those grow up, and try to help them in tho way of making their introduction to' the kind of physical exorcises that'"Serjeant Whatsisname" will require of them.