“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1937. A NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SPORT.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 380, 11 March 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1937. A NATIONAL COUNCIL OF SPORT.

In the proposals of the Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. W. E. Parry) for the establishment of a National Council of Sport, there seems a touch of paternalism amounting almost to absurdity. Surely the oft-repeated programme of “the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange” has not been extended in the enthusiasm following Labour’s victory to mean the nationalisation of our spare-time activities. We do know that even the riotous games of marbles played by school-chil-dren have been controlled by fatherly schoolmasters at times, but surely Mr. F'arry, from his lofty ministerial office, can see wider things to accomnlish than the organisation of a national semiFascist body which will widen the sphere of State interference even into our private lives.

Mr. Parry’s plan provides for “the co-operation of all sports bodies and the co-ordination of all their activities." The system of national physical well-being will start our schools and work ukpwards even into “organised parades and demonstrations of physical fitness.”

What rubbish Mr. Parry talks and what rubbish certain members of the public are prepared to assimilate! The essence of sport is individual enthusiasm. Too much domestic control, let alone State control, destroys that enthusiasm. What right has any Government to regiment the diverse interests of the sports-lovers of our nation?

There can be no objection to a proper national organisation for the physical education of the nation's youth. Sports and pastimes, however, are not suitable for State organisation. A southern contemporary, dealing with the subjest, asks: “What degree of coordination could be possible or desirable between a boys' model aeroplane club and a bowling or polo club?” The sportsmen of New Zealand will surely never allow such unwarranted interference with the manner in which thy spend their leisure hours. Let Mr. Parry admit at once the absurdity of his plan. Let him leave sport, be it tiddely-winks or Rugby football, to the players themselves.

Actually Mr. Parry's proposals are closely allied to the Fascist conception of sport as an object of Government control. Mussolini controls the individual as a unit of the social State just as he controls the corporations of the totalitarian State. If Mr. Parry’s view of men is the same as that of Mussolini, we can look forward to the intense regimentation of the people of this Dominion. We know that Mr. Semple runs amok with his verbosity at times; we hone Mr. Parry has merely given vent to an acute brainstorm which might pass by as the clouds of his colleague's wrath.