SPORT’S GREAT LESSON LEARM BY GIRLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 201, 14 November 1927, Page 12

SPORT’S GREAT LESSON LEARM BY GIRLS

CARLAW PARK DISPLAY INSPIRING SPECTACLE A triumphant, undeniable answer to the charge of feminine inferiority was made at Carlaw Park on Saturday afternoon, when men had to remain on the embankment watching 500 girl athletes competing for cups and other prizes. Too often the girls have had to stand there cheering muddied heroes onward during the footballl season, but in these mellower summer days the sweet reversal came. A magnificent blue day of sunshine, and a light wind errant of the field — the great vivid green trees of the Domain a perfect drop-scene; and, in front of it, the eager, excited, embankment throng. Auckland shopgirls had forgotten the trade turmoil of the week, and out in that sunshine, like beings refreshed, they showed what they could do. During the past four years the Auckland Inter-house Girls’ Sports Association has been encouraging the girls to attain to a physical fitness, which, besides being beneficial to themselves personally, makes for greater bLisiness That great meeting of girlhood must have filled spectators with marvellous faith in the country’s future. To think that the country’s destiny lies in the care of magnificent women such as these is a heartening thought. Well built, healthy .complexioned, keen, and playing the game for the team, not the individual, their example was a telling one. Dressed sensibly in coloured costumes giving the maximum ease of movement, they appeared in brilliant colour contrast against the green of their arena. It was a vivid and beautiful spectacle. The opening march past, was one of the most inspiring exhibitions at the meeting. The teams from the different firms were marshalled at one end of the field, and then dropping into fours with military precision, they swung down past the embankment to the accompaniment of brisk march music. Heads erect, and arms swinging freely, they passed by with lissom, rhythmic tread. The crowd cheered as each section completed its circuit, formed two-deep, and halted. After the march, the teams formed up like a battalion, and gave their war cries. Some were in Maori style, and others in English, expressing for the most part, the intention to play the game to the last. “We can’t all win, but we can all be sports,” ran one. The physical drill display was as perfect a piece of work as could be wished for. It was given by the combined teams, and there was no faltering. Crisp and precise, the work would not have shamed a detachment of trained soldiers, and it certainly was far better than any physical drill done by territorial squads. Here were women who excelled in man’s work. The whole meeting was conducted in perfect sporting spirit, and the girls worked for the honour of their teams, and not personal aggrandisement This is the greatest thing that sport can do, and the shop girls in Auckland have learnt tlie sporting lesson that men sometimes forget.