SUGGESTED PHYSICAL CULTURE CENTRE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 141, 13 August 1941, Page 4

SUGGESTED PHYSICAL CULTURE CENTRE

SINCE the visit of the Physical Instructor to the Home Guard a wave of enthusiasm has swept the district which if caught at the full and carried to a practical conclusion, might well lead to the establishment of a permanent Physi-cal-Culture centre. Already enquiries have been made as to possibilities. The formation of a boy's gymnasium class has the idea, and' from what we gather there is the nucleus of gymnastic equipment already in the town. Instructors are also, in the .offing. The Home Guard movement which has given rise to the suggestion might well foster the idea in an official capacity, and thereby lend encouragement to its members to attend regularly and obtain the benefit of improved physical fitness of the company as a whole. But the 'gym' need not be merely a temporary institution. Why should physical fitness be only necessary in time ol war? Our health should be our parajnount concern all the time. Fitness is vital to men and women throughout their lives. It is the answer to the increasing burdien of hospital institutions, to half the accidents which occur, to inherent physical weaknesses which are passed on,, to numerous nervous maladies., to middle-age slackness and lassitude, to the cutting off of lives only half-lived and finally it gives the denial to most) of the 'dope' masquerading under the flashy banner of 'patent medicines.' Here is an opportunity for the public to rally round and assist in the establishment of a permanent gymnasium, and in the words of an English physician live cheaper by becoming fitter/