THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1937. SPORT AND NATIONAL HEALTH.

Wairarapa Age, 19 August 1937, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1937. SPORT AND NATIONAL HEALTH.

A broad and enlightened view of an important national *problem was taken at the conference called by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) and held in Wellington on Tuesday, to consider his proposal to set up a National Council of Sport for the Dominion. The work to be entrusted to the council is much broader than its proposed name. The object aimed at by the Minister and those who are supporting his efforts is not merely to promote sport, but to build up better standards of health and physical welfare throughout the community. That being so, the conference undoubtedly was wise in declaring that “the national character of any council of sport and recreation can best be secured by direct appointment of the same by the Government irs- an advisory body and not by elective representation of sectional national interests. 0 The policy thus recommended no doubt will be carried'into effect by the Government and it is entirely desirable that this should be done.

While they are in the main serving very efficiently the purposes for which they exist, sports bodies are not organised in any full and comprehensive sense to interest themselves in the improvement of standards of public health. The efforts of many of these bodies culminate in the training of teams capable of winning district, national, or international honours, but the essential aim in a scheme like that now being promoted must be to make the benefits of healthy spoft and exercise available to every member of the population. The conditions to be aimed at are those in which every boy and girl in the community—even those that are in some measure handicapped—will have the opportunity, and will be encouraged, to build up a healthy body. The root of the matter was touched at Tuesday’s conference by Dr. W. R. Fea, of Timaru, who said he could envisage better health for the nation as a result of the conference.

AU boys and girls (he added) could not be champions, but they should be provided with facilities for recreation which would enable them to build up their physical system, so that it would be as far as possible immune from attack by disease. A great deal is already being done in this country, by State and other agencies, to promote the health of the community, but where this work is of the most positive value it is incomplete and relates only to a part of life. Much has been said of late, for example, about the necessity of providing better care for children in the years between the stage of ’infancy, in which they are cared for by the Blanket Society, and that of going to school. A wisely directed scheme of recreational physical culture, made as nearly as possible universal, and having the promotion of health as distinct from supremacy in sport as its essential aim, would confer far-reaching and lasting benefits. The further development of the proposals the Minister for Internal Affairs has in hand will be awaited with hopeful interest. Every district in the Dominion should be prepared to play an active part in providing the more ample and general facilities for healthy sport that are now contemplated. Something will depend on' the financial and other arrangements made by the Government under the advice of the National Council, but the policy now broadly outlined has the strongest claims to consideration, not only from the standpoint of promoting health and welfare, but as a matter of sound national economy. Nothing is more wasteful than indifferent health and

the sickness and infirmity into which it merges so easily. The Wairarapa is better provided* with facilities for healthy sport than a good many other parts of the Dominion, but even here there is plenty pf room ..for development. Looking only at Masterton, there is unused ground in the Memorial Park which might be turned to excellent account as tennis courts and other playing areas for children and young people. Improved municipal swimming baths are greatly needed, and arrangements ought to be possible under which a greatly increased ftse would be made of the splendid Solway Showgrounds for purposes of public sports during a great part of the year.