PUBLIC SPORTS

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 16, 1 December 1883, Page 4

PUBLIC SPORTS

[COMMUNICATED,] IT is pleasing to observe that in despite el the ungenial weather, the spirits of our inhabitants are by no means quenched. We are enduring a spring unparalleled in our annals, and yet, with every possible opportunity, we meet undaunted, to join in those common amusements proper to an ordinary season. The Great Cricket Match occasioned an immense amount of innocent fun and genial merriment, and we hear rumors that other friendly contests are to be entered upon as a sequence. At the Annual Hospital /<?/«, on Friday, November 30, we hope to witness a large and friendly gathering. The object of the meeting is good and appeals equally to all ’asses, in more ways than one, for nut ” will our Hospital benefit the funds, practice of at hletio spOTts exercises '** beneficial influence among our citi- * ' .programme is a very good one A. ’ es substantial. No doubt our and the are p rac tj g f B| v vigorously and to esc keen competition, renewing our youth by another age, so long p»*» ' e ? awa * lnto Jhades Among them, however, public biiwuoo. & .nnra i> »werful influence games constituted a more£ greateBt in . than among us They were whether rich‘s poor, of noble birth e r of peasant extraction, thought himself pre!' ' ° t 3 '’* n j the contests, and prince and side by side, and boxed, wrestled, 0> together. The prises were of no mo uetary value: they consisted merely of an ? aK wreath or laurel crown, a coronet of parsley or green pine leaves, yet their acquisition was considered so great an honor, that we have on record two old men, that actually died of joy because their sons were crowned for boxing. Diagoras, the Rhodian, whose two sons were both crowned, expired in their arms as they carried him, m their triumph, from the ground. The training undergone for their public games rendered the Greeks hardy and muscular beyond all other nations. No rapid or irregular training sufficed. From earliest infancy they were innured to toil and exposure, and to the most violent exercise. Their physical advantages consequently were almost incredible. We read of a Greek athlete who carried on his shoulder a living ox across the stadium or grounds where the sports were held ; killed it with one blow of hi. fist: and afterwards ate it in the public banquet-hall. To be crowned at the games was the summit of a Greek’s ambition. The winners received an ovation from their fellow-citi-&ens. They were ushered by heralds to the grand stand. Their names and countries were proclaimed aloud. They w’ere conducted in a triumphal car throughout the city and in their own country received substantial honours and rewards They were heroes for the time being ; their praises and deeds were sung by poets and chronicled by historians. Their portraits were painted and their forms sculptured by the greatest artists in the State. All this appeals to the sympathies of the people. Excellence in muscular sport, endurance, physical development, hardihood, prove the individual to be a man among men, capable of attainments beyond his fellows. # And more than ever m these days are such exercises necessary. There is far too great a tendency, under our present system, to crowd into the towns. It is only too likely that in the course of twenty or thirty years or so, men, as far as the Colonies are concerned, will have degenerated in physical and muscular development. Our education system precludes boys from beginning early to accustom themselves to outdoor toil and muscular exertion. All the boys in the country are occupied in the echools, learning from books at an age when their fathers and grandfathers were growing in the open air and sunshine. Children, like plants and all forms of animal and vegetable life, require the sun and air for their full development. The boy who sits all day long in a crowded school-room, from the age of 6 to 14, cannot expect to grow up either muscular or hardy. When he leaves school, he will be unfit in mind and body, for a country life. He must be a clerk, a book-keeper, telegraphist, accountant, as the case may be. More likely he will not be able to obtain employment. The other day, in Auckland, a youth was advertised for, to undertake a clerk’s duties at a salary of £3O per annum. There were 75 applications. A partv of young men numbering 8 or 10, arrived in the same city, from Christchurch, a short time back. They were seeking employment as clerks, and would have accepted the meanest office. All were educated and fit for the work for which they had been reared, only the work was not obtainable. These facts tell their own tale, and as years go on the evil must become greater instead of less. We possess large areas of country needing cultivators ; our progress, as a nation, depends entirely on land, Our towns are compared with English or Contiuential citi* s, mere villages, the outlet of a large agricultural and farming country. Yet, to supply our needs, we rear a race of feeble clerks. The best means of counteracting this enormous evil would be to erect gymnasiums, and encourage sporting of every description. All boys, if they must spend their aays seated on forms in school, should in their play hours be leaping, wrestling, running, jumping, putting the stone, rowing, vaulting, and practising gymnastic exercises. As to girls, it is now generally recognised that muscular exercise is necessary to their health and better development. Owing to the exertions put forth by the medical faculty and others in the Old Country, girls are being trained more and more to freedom of dress and outdoor exercise. Tennis has done much for them and the raid upon tightlacing more After all, we believe, we shall find that the old Greeks were wiser than we ; with their loose, flowing garments, healthful training, and tendency to cultivate a hardy physique. The cultivation of the mind is much 5 but the mind dspends upon the body, A healthful body will contain a healthy mind.