CRAZE FOR SPEED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 856, 27 December 1929, Page 6

CRAZE FOR SPEED

SPECTATORS DEMAND NEW SPORTING FARE (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Thursday.

There was a time in New Zealand when athletic meetings were extremely popular with the public, and a wellstaged gathering: always drew a crowd oC onlookers. Such conditions, however, are of the past, and it is very difficult in these days to draw a crowd to see athletics, even when championships are at stake. The public today wants speed in its amusements, and athletic races and field events are by no means fast enough after the spectator has watched dirt-track racing, or whippets in action, or motor-cycle racing, or some other sport in which excessive speed is the essence of the contest.

Wellington is suffering from this difficulty, and even the sports gathering on Boxing Day was not attended in the way it should have been, considering the fare provided by the centre. The desire to be amused by speed is seen in the large attendances nightly at the Kilbirnie Stadium, where thousands of Wellington residents congregate whenever a broadsiding meeting is held. Now there is talk of erecting a New Zealand Brooklands at Paremata, just out of Wellington, where a wide track, suitable for motor racing, is to be erected by an energetic company formed for the purpose. There is another side to this keenness for speed, and that is that the public will become more and more onlookers instead of participators in sport, which is an aspect which must be regretted. Y.M.C.A. CAMP AT HUNUA MANY BOYS UNDER CANVAS City and country boys from Whangurei, Auckland, Fapatoetoe, Faeroa, Kotorua and Wellington are now revelling in the delights of camp-life in the Hunua Ranges, at the summer resort of the boys’ division of the Y.M.C.A. Over 70 lads, whose ages range from 11 to 17 years, went under canvas on Christmas Eve, and many more joined the party during the Boxing Day holiday. Ideally situated on the fringe of the llunua Stream, the camp is in a peaceful and picturesque setting. Standing in the centre of the encampment is a large lodge, in which a large assembly hall serves the dual purpose of a dining and indoor recreation room. There is a wide range of indoor amusements, and a wireless set is also installed. Clustered round the lodge are tents, each accommodating 10 lads. Behind the camp a clearing has been circled with rough-hewn wooden seats, and in the centre at nights a huge camp-fire crackles. The cooking is done by experts, who have proper facilities in the remainder of the lodge. Rambles through the bush and tramps over the hills to Clevedon offer a delightful holiday to the boys, who are also well catered for with sports and games. The camp site was purchased through the generosity of the parents of Air. Frank Henderson, who was killed in the Great Wax-, and to whose memory a tablet has been erected in the hall. Another feature of the lodge is the draped ensigns of foreign countries, who reciprocated the act of goodwill of the Y.M.C.A. boys’ Auckland division in sending 18 New Zealand ensigns to other nations.

For cricket and all the summer sports there is no friend like ELLIMAN’S EMBROCATION. Athletes prefer it to all other embrocations. Strains, sprains, aches and pains disappear after ELLIMAN’S, Use it “after the game.”—2s.