SPORTS AND RECREATION

Te Ao Hou, June 1959, Page 23

SPORTS AND RECREATION By far the most numerous groups were those to do with sports and recreation. These included Rugby football, Rugby League, Tennis, Basketball, Baseball, Dance Bands, Church Choirs, concert parties and social clubs. While some of these groups confined themselves to the activity referred to in the Club's name, others correlated a variety of activities in their programmes. Other sports and recreational groups were attached to church and kinship organisations. Latter Day Saints had a dance band, a choir and a concert party. The Ratana Church also supported a dance band and a social club, while the United Maori Mission had a concert party for the young people who lived in its hostels. The Rarawa Club was primarily a kinship organisation and so was the Tairawhiti Club. The latter organised Maori concerts with a party from its members, while the former ran a sports club, a weekly dance, and a social club as part of its work. Although there was intermingling between Maori and European in sports and social gatherings through the various clubs, the identity of the groups remained Maori and in the main catered for young Maori people. Their administration too remained in Maori hands. While some of the sports clubs joined the general European controlled competitions and a Maori representative was appointed to the Rugby Union and the Rugby League controlling bodies, there were at the same time several Maori controlled competitions. Less prominent than in the country, but nevertheless quite significant was the feature of inter-tribal competition and rivalry in sports. Much of the leadership of the sports and recreation bodies was in the hands of the rangatahi leaders, who were specialists qualified by their specific playing skills. More often however the administrative leadership was assumed by an older person. These non-playing leaders were usually persons long established in the City, the knew their way around, and they recognised that young people coming into the city required a social life and sports activities arranged for them. Frequently the profit motive in the clubs was the main appeal to the administrators. The young people however were satisfied as long as they reecived their fun. A shrewd administrator of Maori social and sports activities may use a tribal name to draw the young people from that district, or the initial steps of establishing the clubs may be fairly free of any thought of commercialisation. Soon however many clubs become money making concerns. The rangatahi leaders may find themselves being ushered into leadership positions in other groups. The general policy seem to be, where a club is strong, to try and keep its independence from the tribal executive who is trying to unite everybody, or else to form another group apart from the club though with the club personnel, and call it a tribal committee, and thereby get on to the tribal executive and at the same time retain the separate identity of the club.