WEEKEND CAMPS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 34, 4 November 1942, Page 6

WEEKEND CAMPS

Recreative Outings For Factory Workers EXTENSION IN VIEW

“There is no better way to use weekend leisure, when it conies to one, than by participating in recreative camp outings in the tdean air and beautiful sunshine of our country,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry, iu discussing last night with .representatives of the physical welfare and group travel branches of the Internal Affairs Department the .possibilities of an extension of the plan under which essential workers benefited by weekend recuperative camps. • Reviewing reports o£ officers aud the statements of the managers of northern and southern factories on the results of recent officially arranged camp outings in which, he stated, a splendid practical interest had been displayed by all concerned, the Minister expressed satisfaction with the success achieved iu the new development of officers’:activities. He considered a line certificate to the work of officers had been written by the manager of one of the factories ou behalf of whose female employees a weekend seaside camp was arranged. . The manager wrote: “Thp girls enjoyed to the full all the recreative facilities the physical welfare officers provided for them. They returned to their machines and benches happily fit and buoyed up for work. In telling you the management wishes to pay the expenses of the outing, I congratulate the department on its scheme. The knowledge the girls gained of outdoor games and exercise should help them to maintain physical fitness in their hard and, often, tedious-jobs. In our experience of the ways of large staffs of workers and in the exercise of control it is a policy infinitely more sound to provide them with healthy out-of door entertainment and recreation than it is to follow a policy of doing nothing, by which there is no encouragement for the girls to spend their time profitably and attractively for mental and physical recuperation. We say, ‘Good luck to you in this work; it is sound, Sensible/ and makes happy the lot of the factory worker.’ ” Scope In Wellington. Mr. Parry said he was much interested in proposals for the inclusion in the weekend camp plans of some of the many essentially classed factories ini Wellington. There was much scope for the- work in this city.' The pity was that war-time travel restrictions, now acute, would somewhat curb the full development of officers’ operations but, nevertheless, with ■ the recent addition to the local staff and •existing facilities, much could be done. There was already on record an inquiry and an offer of co-operation from one Wellington company which wished its employees to participate in one of -the weekend camp outings when arrangements for their commencement were completed. He agreed with one or two —but not all—of the opinions expressed by Sister V. Dawes in that day’s “Dominion” that a considerable amount of good work for spiritual, mental, and physical well-being could be registered among the thousands of young women workers in Wellington. “The policy under which officers are asked to do their work,” Mr. Parry added, “lays -it down that they co-operate with any recognized club, society, or institution. There is no item in the policy which provides for the regimentation or control of the club, society, institution, or its members. Officers do not and must not interfere with the domestic government of any body. Our aim is to aid a body and its members in the work. The young men and women physical welfare officers are competent and efficient in their work which is, to the knowledge of Members of Parliament of all sides of the House, backed up by all bodies they have assisted.”