PHYSICAL WELFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 117, 20 May 1939, Page 11

PHYSICAL WELFARE

COURSE FOR WOMEN

COMPLETED YESTERDAY

A. short refresher course of physical welfare training conducted by ■ Miss Helen Black, of the Physical Welfare and Recreation branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, and attended by 30 young women leaders and teachers of physical recreation to girls' clubs in the North and South Islands, was completed yesterday, and those who took part were , entertained at afternoon tea by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry). The course Was sponsored by the physical welfare branch and. was held in the Teachers' Training College, Kelburn. It is hoped to hold further courses of this nature from time to time. . . ■

Addressing the gathering of young women at. the afternoon tea function, the Minister expressed his pleasure that they had been ■ willing at their own expense to come to Wellington for the course, and said that it augured well.for the success of the physical fitness campaign. It appeared to him that it was not so difficult to enthuse the women folk as the men in the desire for physical and mental fitness. NO TABLOID RECIPE. "The physical fitness movement will not provide any tabloid recipe for good health," said the Minister. "We are not. setting ourselves up as a chemist shop or a manufacturing drug i company. Our duty is to try to make those we come into contact with. realise that, though instruction can be given, the actual foundation work for physical fitness must be done by themselves. We can and should hope to create a greater urge for the taking |up by each individual of some form of physical activity, but it is impossible for us to make others lacking personal interest and co-operation physically fit. "One of our chief aims should be to quicken public opinion to a desire for physical fitness so that all would be I prepared to take up some form of physical -activity. In fact, unless we i can accomplish that it seems to me we must fail in our objective. | PUBLIC ENTHUSIASM. "We have to arouse enthusiasm for good health, good living laws/and a positive way of looking at life.. If that can be accomplished. it will not only j build a happy and healthy nation, but save the community thousands of pounds which today are spent on the construction and maintenance of hospitals and mental institutions." Mr. Parry said he hoped the women who had attended the course had benefited as a result of the instruction they had received, and that there would be increases in the membership of the clubs and classes with which they were associated. The department and its officers were interested in their work.' They were "connected with a most important movement—the development of: the well-being and fitness of the people. "■■'*■"■ ' ' ' -

The course enabled, those interestedih recreative and physical activities the opportunity of meeting and" exchanging idea's arid of taking part in modern types of physical activity suitable for recreative classes. . In addition to the practical work undertaken, lectures were given by Dr. Alexander Gillies on "Occupational Posture," by Miss Kennedy on "Leadership," and by Miss H. Mac Donald on "Some Aspects of Physical Education in Canada and the United States." Miss Black, who was in charge of the course, has had Australian and "European experience and arrived in New Zealand comparatively recently.. . .