PUBLIC PLAYGROUNDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 29 July 1929, Page 2

PUBLIC PLAYGROUNDS

AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT “Every generation lias its peculiar revolution, the discovery of which is usually left to future historians. There is in our midst to-day a movement of far greater significance to the welfare, both physical and moral, of the coining race than many of the events facilely hailed as of ‘supreme national importance.’ ” The ‘Morning Post’ observed recently in reference to (he movement, initiated by the. Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, and directed by the National Playing Fields Association, for the setting apart, in all areas of urban and rural England, of open spaces for public recreation: “Like all major revolutions, this one is being accomplished step by step,, without fuss, by organisers imbued with that type of zeal for public service which seeks no fulsome praise, but finds its reward in seeing the work in hand prospering. That it has prospered exceedingly is already manifest. In the, recollection of all of us there was a time when the rudimentary rules, of crickethad to be learned by thousands in dim and narrow alleys, with few, if any, competent instructors to supervise the ‘play.’ To-day that is all changing. Societies abound for helping the slumdwellers into the sunshine; sports clubs have sprung up on all sides, whose members vie with one another in giving tips to the ‘young idea,’ and incidentally, in inculcating the true spirit of sportsmanship. It is one of the few causes which have no opponents. Our playing fields are not merely ehangihg the face of England. they are changing, by quite perceptible degrees, the character of the people.'’