Is Hockey Too Strenuous For Weaker Sex?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 751, 26 August 1929, Page 14

Is Hockey Too Strenuous For Weaker Sex?

Opinions About Hamilton Decision “RIDICULOUS” SAY SOME Opinions differ widely in Auckland as to the wisdom of the decision of the Board of Governors of the Hamilton High School to exclude hockey as a game for the girls of the school. r J'HIS decision was reached by the board on Friday following a report by the headmaster, that hockey was considered injurious to girls. The headmaster, Mr. E. Wilson, said that after careful consideration it had been decided to introduce basketball at the school in place of hockey. “Basketball,” he said, “gives splendid exercise and can be played with benefit to health and physique by practically every girl in the school. Hockey, in the opinion of a commission of experts which sat in England a few years ago to consider girls* games, cannot be played without serious risk of strain, except by those perfectly physically fit, and, as the New Zealand director of physical education, says, ‘How many are ?’ ” Mr. Wilson stated further that there were a number of prominent girls’ schools in the Dominion where hockey was not played. Headmasters and headmistresses had expressed unqualified disapproval of the game. The director of physical education for New Zealand had stated that for general physical development, hockey was inferior to basketball.

On Saturday morning, The Sun interviewed a number of hockey and basketball officials, and headmistresses of Auckland girls’ schools to obtain their opinions on the merits or demerits of hockey as a game for girls. Miss A. Twiname, secretary of the Auckland Ladies’ Hockey Association, said she considered' the view of the headmaster of the Hamilton High School was ridiculous. She had never heard of the English commission which decided against hockey as a game for girls. She knew that certain physical culture experts in Auckland were against the game. “Hockey is played by the girls of the Training College and St. Cuthbert’s College, and we have never heard any complaints of girls being injured through playing the gqme.'* Miss Twiname said. “The girls in Auckland do not get a chance to be properly coached in the game, and that certainly is a drawback.” Many of the doctors of Auckland had expressed approval of hockey, and one or two were opposed to it. “The ordinary girl can overdo anything hockey, tennis or basket-ball, but there is no more risk of injury in hockey played in moderation, than either of these other games,” Miss Twiname said. Miss Twiname has played both hockey and basketball, representing Auckland at the former game. She has found basketball even more strenuous than hockey, she says. She could not help wondering whether the Hamilton people would not take the decision of the board of governors of the High School as a slur on their girls. GRACEFUL POSTURE The headmistress of the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School ,Miss Morrison, said that hockey was not played by the girls of the school. The authorities had considered it too strenuous a game. It also tended to develop one side of the body to the detriment of the other. The school had found the shorter spells of the basketball game much more suitable. When asked for her opinion, Miss F. Lee, president of the Auckland Basketball Association, said she considered hockey a much too strenuous game for girls. The body was stretched on one side, and physical injuries were much more common than with basketball. The continual stretching up did not do any harm to a girl playing basketball, except possibly in the case of a left-handed girl. Apart from such considerations, the spells in hockey were far too long, and the game seemed to be played in any sort of weather. She had been speaking to an English artist recently, who was watching her first game of basketball, and who considered that the game, more than any other sport, gave girls a graceful posture. It led them to be graceful. Basketball was popular as a game in Auckland, and recent years had seen a big increase in the number of girls playing the game. MISS TYPISTE’S OPINION The Sun man then interviewed Miss Typiste as she was leaving her Queen Street office at 11.59 a.m. for an afternoon’s sport, with vanity bag and hockey stick under her arm. “I think that the Hamilton decision is most ridiculous,” she said. “To say that hockey is not suitable for the modern girl is nothing but downright prejudice. The day when the socalled weaker sex existed as a species of butterfly for the flattery of mere men has passed. We now play many games that men play and in some of j them are quite able to hold our own with men. “We don’t want other people, and men at that, telling us what games we are or are not to play. I follow my own inclination, and play hockey because it is just too delightful.” With that she sprinted after a departing tram, and was gone!

AUCKLAND ORPHANS

VISITORS’ ENTERTAINED Representatives of the Cambridge and Morrinsville Orphans, delegates to the North Island Motor Union Conference and officers of the steamer Mamma were guests at the Auckland Orphans’ Club's fortnightly meeting on Saturday evening. The visitors were cordially welcomed by Mr. J. Stanton, vice-president of the Auckland club, and Messrs. T. Hampshire, Cambridge, and Faulkner, Morrinsville. and Mr. E. A. Batt responded on behalf of the guests.