Musings by the Way.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 June 1911, Page 178

Musings by the Way.

["ByS&tor")

I daresay many other parents will say I am a prude ; bnt I have forbidden my boy to play football. And not because there is anything wrong 1 m the game : far from it : it is a fine manly game when properly played. But the associations usually (I won't say " always," as that would be too sweeping an assertion) connected with football and football matches are, I consider, of the worst possible kind. * I have lived m many places m New Zealand, and I have seen many football matches — at least, if I have not actually stood and watched them, I have seen the footballers going playing and- returning, and very seldom have I been favourably impressed with the personnel of the players. So far as I have seen, it is. the nearest hotelkeeper who benefits on such occasions, and even if all the players do not take too much drink — which many of them do — }s ;t durable that a youth, should.

form such a habit ? Of course it may be said that other gam#3 — cricket, hockey, fcr instance — usually end up at the hotel and that very often no great harm eventuates. I wonder !

lam not going tosp» j ak about other things, e.g., the swearing one so often hear*, b< cause unfortunately one hears that at all times and m all places, and any schoolmaster will tpll you how even the youngest children m his school can swear, and any Naiive schoolmaster will tell you how his young Maori proteges — girls a* well as boys — pick up swearing with fatal facility ; but it seems to me that all our games, our good old English games, sadly need purifying. A. boy who plays football must exprct a certain amount of rough usage— this again I do not object to, m moderation, for a boy must learn to take his share of knocks and kicks. But when it comes to broken legs, arms, collarbones, damaged skulls and serious internal injuries why he might as ■well be defending his country and doing something useful, instead of running the risk of being incapacitated m mere brutish play, winding up with a smoke concert m the hotel. Mind, I am only writing of what I have seen.

When the old Greeks held their races and sports, the Greek youths ran for the pure love of the thing, and the only prize m view was a crown of parsley or a wreath of laurel. Imagine offering that to any of our young men now-a-days! Even tennis has degenerated into a series of tournaments with the inevitable valuable prizes as a bait, and, worse still, private parties, afternoon teas, etc., all hold out the modern attraction of one or more prizes, very often of a costly nature. Indeed, if the prize is, m the opinion of the "guests" (!) of too inexpensive a nature various ill-natured remarks are freely passed round.

It would seem that so sordid are we m these days that we can't do anything without a quid pro quo — the idea of playing the game for the game's sake seems to have completely departed from us. And this is surely an unmitigated cvil — I cannot see one good thing about it. It enters into everything — this idea of getting one's moneys worth. A Church needs money, how is it to be raised ? Oh, by a bazaar ! Yet who are the only ones who give at such an affair-? Not the buyers, for they as a rule take

good care that they get their moneys worth : it is the stall-holders and donors alone who give, and very often even m their case the giving is not all genuine giving.

And even supposing raffles of all sorts are strictly prohibited, yet the evil is just as great m other ways. What right has the Church— God's Church — to enter the mercantile world and become a buyer and seller — to become a shopkeeper? Will God bless money obtained m this way? Let none delude themselves into thinking that when they go to a bazaar they are giving to God. As for whist or bridge drives, smoke concerts, guessing competitions, baby shows, and other abominations - well, words fail me. Money raised m these ways for the work of the Gospel cannot be blessed.

So you see the same spirit runs through all : it vitiates and debases our games : it vitiates and debases our Church work. If a game is worth playing, surely it is worth playing as a game without a sordid monetary prize tacked on to it, and if a Church is worth helping, surely it is worth helping by direct giving, and Eot by socials, dances, bazaars arid picnics, where one gives one shilling and expects eighteen-penny worth of amusement. So too m our Sunday schools. Is it a good thing to almost bribe the children to attend by giving cards and prizes, socials and picnics ? But how alarmingly the attendance of any one Sunday school would drop if these adventitious aids ceased — if all the schools gave up these everlasting prizes, etc., it would not be so bad.

It is a commercial age. The spirit of commercialism and the worship of Mammon seem to have taken fast hold of us. Yet one reads with pleasure of the vast sums raised by all the Christian bodies m England on " Hospital Sunday" — this is direct giving. Well, let the Church emulate this by sternly refusing to turn herself into a shop or a purveyor of amusement. If it is necessary to find some form of pure amusement for our young people under the Church's auspices, let it not be as a means of raising funds ; while as for football and other games, let us play them as gentlemen and not as wild beasts, and play them, too, for the game's sake. Professionalism, commercialism, and a few other " isnis," are rapidly ruining our good old games. C.W.K.