A PLEA FOR SPORT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 July 1911, Page 2

A PLEA FOR SPORT.

WITH A REVIKW. (Contributed). .Vow that an effort is being made to resist the sustained efforts of a well-meaning but misguided section of the community to interfere with the liberty of the subject, and now that certain churches are passing resolutions on the question of Sunday enjoyment, it is well to take a cursory glance at what has taken place in tfnglaml. London had long been a city of despair and gloom on Sundays. The same applied to Manchester. Liverpool. Sheffield, and the towns in tlw North. An influential section in the community ihad long bold the country in its grip, ami tin , writer, whose father held swa'y as a bencficed (Anglican) clergyman in the Midlands, well recollects, not perhaivs without a. shudder, dismal Sundays, when the parish churches and the nonconformist churches, rightly according to the lights, thundered forth ;in impassioned tones on the moral degeneration of the- youth, whoso be-all and end-all, it w'as alleged, consisted in sports. A verv persistent attack was made upon horsorneing. am! at times th'To wore appearances that the forces of reaction might possibly prevail. But the rising tide of an edn'/atod pu-blic opinion swept awav let us hope once and for ever the old and hideous landmark-, of an excessive riuiditv. Then oc-urrod tikk- .reaction \\:hich always takes iilace : only in K'li'.d-.uvd it is taking place in a more aggravated form then some people at the time thought it ever would ('■;> when they struggled for_ liberty of conscience and for the intellectual and social development of the democracy. Among the names that will stand out for all time, as ihaving struggled for the social onfr.im'hiHOinont of the masses will be that of Mr Henry Mills. It was Mr Mills who, forty' years ago. withstood a tempest of odium and mendacity. But ■'inagna est veritas. et- provalehit," and to-day Mr Mills' forty years campaign has placed sports of all kinds on a sure and stable foundation, while his efforts have transformed tho English Sunday. Whether his policy is a. right one, whether it is consistent with Ohristi:ii! ethics is an onen (|iiestion. In tho writer's mind, it is consistent with Christian ethics, and! day after dav the clerirv of the Established 'chureh. like the _ Hev. Stewart lleadlam, who exei-cisos an eiiorinous influence in Loncon. op' i nIv advocate cricket and football, trmis and howls in the London p-irks on Sunday. Mr lleadlam \r:< eloquentlv p!-".aded for Sunday yparts from his seat in iilve London C.-unty Council. To tho writer's mind sports mi Sunday are to bo deprecated, tlioiimh. as the Bishop <:l' 'London says, it is extremely difficult to sa-v that a hard-worked city man should not play golf on Sunday. provioV'd ho takes the Bl'ssr! Sacrament in early niornin,:'.

Hut Mills' efforts wore not solclv "•.:n« , c: ml wit«!i' Sunday sport. Ik , made a vigorous and successful effort, t'i throw op n tlio Albert Hall. in the WVt Kii:l. the IVeplos Pal:k-\ in the lOast Knil, on Sundays for p-'i-formaiicos of secular ln.usic: to iirluee tlie ''teal authorities to tlirnw open parks and pin cos forsp;'"ial musical pcrl'onnaiici's l>y the l>(\st Army an/1 police bands in \}<o nW''op;>lis. •'''AVisdom is .justified of lior cliiklren.' , and t1i , . 1 fact that ihp 10.000 seats in tl;e Albert Hall :•;:< always occupied, tb.? 1.000 poats in the IVoplos P-i'ace are crowt 1 ! 1 :!, mi;l tlint 100.000 pvrso-'s saunter In Vi-toiia Park, in tlie En-4 End, an.l 200.000 gather in Hyde l'nrk io listen t> the band-say of the Ist Life GiKU'ds- -is sufTicioiit testimony of the. ]>üb!ic's aupri-i-iation l'o,r a "rati-ounl"' Sunday. t>bo giTat London tprmini one can, in fifty iniiHites. reach in a corridor train tlie south coast for Us return ; or bo cun >.?,<.) by the Great Xorthei-n Railway l-'iO miles to C'i'oiner's placid seashore, in less than tliree hours, for the .stupendous amount of 3s (id. Hut how has this beneficent change been effected? Tho ■answer is oin'ious. Mills -saw that public npinitiii was ripe—almost "rottiui ripe"--for action. And he and many other willing benefactors fostpretl and organised that public opinion. They swept away, or the public- did, every vestige of a I'uri-t-vnisin thnt lwd blasted and b!i«!ite'! lnnuv a 'heart which Almiahty had inteiuled should rejoi'e. and, rejoice over tlie things which lie Himself had ci'eated. . . The

King is an entlni.sia.stic visitor 1u t.l:i.' Derby and the Oaks: at tins? great race meetings the Xwhlc Lord, nitis slmrlder with tho Whitoehapol roster. The lord i!i':id ;it last, wliother lip liked it or not. to stand (Mi a common platform with the worker as Car as tho preservation of sport was ciniifri'cd, nil 1 •having stood together they frustrated the attacks of well-moaning but paroeliially-niiudod men, whoso interests lay, ivot in the future, but in the mist and with hhe Jallacios of the past. If sports in Xo\v Zealand are to l)e protected, and if the liberty of the subject is to be no further contracted, it 'is pssomtial tlrat a National Sportino; Asssn-cia-tion should bo formed, with local bmiehos. The niembewihiip f«' "rod on'lv 1)0 small, but the. very first element in mkwss k thoroudi and coonpleto orffiiuisiii";. Orgaiiiise! Organise! Organise! "When these fa-Is have bcwi drilled into th|? licads of the peo])le sport will he sa f o _,iot. before. Tn.tiV.'C Actinp;Viv.mier New Zealand luas a time sporting gentleman. He lias had tii withstand, a good deal from the blasts of obloquy, hut if the people will unite and stand by "Jimmy," tbero should be no reason why sports such a.s hor-soracinsx, boooin.c, and Milliards fihonld not he _ ftiinly secure, so that those who disagree -with them may he given a more extensive opportunity of devotine their time and lattention to tilioso panticnlar avocations "in wliicili it hath pleased Almighty God to call til'.em."