VALUE OF ATHLETICS.

Patea Mail, 2 July 1881, Page 3

VALUE OF ATHLETICS.

The .following extract is from the Lancet— Whilst we deprecate unnecessary risks of all kind, a' certain amount of danger is inseparable from all kinds ■o f athletic sports. The cricket field, the hunting field, the racecourse, and the arena of athletic sports—all number a . good many maimed, or even.killed, among their votaries ; but the undoubted . value of athletic.i exercises to bhe. individual ;aud the nation more,than counterbalance -the .Dficasional .mishapsn'wfhibh must inevitably There are many pastimes infinitely.nioi'e ruinous tohealth ( than those, we;have enmnerated. 1 Dancing nigp-t; after .might, ,jn. crowded and non ventilated, ifooms, is among the most unwholesome and dangerous practices of modern jife, and kills, infinitely more perspiis (though more indirectly)’ithan either the “. Rugby ” or the Association Football Rules.- The men . who are killed .by, M sittingr,in; f ,publicJi;ousesvor /what, is the same cluhThouses,playing billiards, and cards to the hours,, and drinking .“ B. and S.”, are not, held up as warnings, while-their fellows who happen to ,be killed .while engaged in some sport which has in it a dash of nobility, and pluck, are spoken of as “ frightful examples” of the evils of this or that amusement. If by undue roughness, or by unfairness, orie man, kills another at a game,, the ordinary law is sufficient to deal with him. This is enough protection, and we.very : much object to a return to anything approaching the suniptuary laws, of a ’bygone age. ~