THE ERA OF SPORT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 49, Issue 14959, 10 July 1923, Page 4

THE ERA OF SPORT.

This is undoubtedly the era of sport. The pessimist says that we have too much sport, and every now and then he raises his dismal voice to protest against workslbip at the shrine of the Goddess of Sport. Far better be it to indulge in some healthy recreation on a half-holiday than to mope about the street corners idling the time away, or indulging in some pastime of a questionable nature. On the coldest day in winter thousands will attend a football match. Even the rain will not deter these enthusiasts from seeing their favourite team at play. In the summertime the whole Dominion devotes itself to healthy recreation in the field of play, and rightly so. There is a time for study, a time for work, and a time for recreation. The pessimist would have us give all our time to study and work and none to recreation. No nation

ever made real headway tihat devoted

tiself solely to study and work. Continual work makes a nation narrowminded, mean, selfish and petty in her outlook. Germany’s policy of work, work, work led to the ambition to become master of the world, a. policy which ended in her undoing. She stood in strong contrast to England and France. The two latter, sport-loving nations, proved themselves the better fighters in the war, than the machinelike German. Of course, sport, can be carried to excess and thus prove detrimental to a nation, but the good sense of the stolid British race will never allow this to come about.