The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, February 15, 1910. YOUNG MEN’S CLUB.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 812, 15 February 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, February 15, 1910. YOUNG MEN’S CLUB.

Wii are informed that an effort is being made to form a Young Men’s Club under the auspices of the local Catholic Church, and that application will he made to the school committee for a room in the old school building for the purpose. The object is indeed a laudable one, and everyone who has the welfare of our young men at heart will wish the movement every success. An institution of this description is badly needed in Foxton. Billiard rooms, bar parlours and street corners have their uses, but they are not suitable for those pursuits which adorn the mind and enlarge the soul. We are sorry to have to admit that too much valuable time is given up by our young men in this fair land to spon. We do not wish for one moment to disparage athletics, there is nothing like a sound mind in a healthy body—it is iudispensible —but when the higher attributes are made subservient to athletics, horse racing and sordid money grubbing, man commences to fall from the Divine image. The soul becomes dwarfed, and the animal nature is uppermost. This should not be. Get into a railway carriage in company with a number of young fellows —fine, handsome young chaps physically. Listen to the animated conversation: horseracing, football, and blood-letting encounters. How pitiful, when we think that among that company is the dormant, flabby, unused braiu tisue of a statesman, scientist or reformer ! Well, perhaps the Press must take its share of the blame—it panders too much to sport. We hope the promoters of the institution will not be disheartened with small beginnings, and that the Club will become a flourishing institution.