The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1922. KEEPING PHYSICALLY FIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1922. KEEPING PHYSICALLY FIT.

No subject, for an address to senior cadets could have been more appropriate than that chosen by Dr. Thomson last week, namely: “Physical development of 1 our generation; wha t are the prospects, 1 and what are we doing for it?” The particular phase of this very important question which the lecturer stressed was the period of life between leaving school and the adult stage —just that crucial time when the foundation laid in school days should be built upon, so that when the human structure is completed it may be as perfect as possible. The nation is merely la aggregate of individuals, and according to the physical fitness of the individuals so will the nation be as a whole. Most of ( us have become familiar with the recurrent question .as to whether the British are becoming'a decadent, people, but. while the .medical examination of recruits to take part in the late war revealed an almost unbelievable number of men as unfit for war service, yet the records of the long campaign proved beyond doubt that, the Empire contains as stalwart and fit manhood as ever existed previously. None the less are the observations of Dr. Thomson not only welcome but entitled to-serious consideration. What he claims is that children, are born fit enough in New Zealand, that they are fit enough in our schools, but from that point there is a pernicious falling away. Tn making these assertions, it may be that the lecturer went a little farther than he intended, if the results of the medical examination, of school children are to be relied upon. That, however, is only a detail, and by no means lessens the force of the doctor's argument. In referring to the hardiness of the pioneers in this country, the lecturer opened up a vista of the physical advantages, attached to the simple life, wherein strength, determination, grit arid hardihood join forces in creating outstanding specimens of humanity, and the great age to which many of these pioneers lived bears witness to the soundness of the stock from wtfich they sprung. If history is read aright, the one striking fact that impresses itself on the student is that for a nation to be strong the people must be physically fit. and that, according as they become enervated by good living and pleasure, so they head for the road to extinction. There is a very wide gap between the brutal savage ’. 'm of the Spartans and modern methods of physical culture, yet there was undoubtedly one sound principle on which they acted, that is, they inured their Children to hardships of the severest, kind, while the principal object of attention during the periods of boyhood and youth was physical education, which consisted of running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing, the chase, and other vigorous exercises which tended to improve their strength and"stamina. It is some such system as this which Dr. Thomson appears to advocate after the completion of school life. There is much in what he said as to thousands watching a football match, yet doing nothing to cultivate their own physical fitness. The number of young men who build up their frame and constitution by means of physical exercises which develop every part of their system is extremely few. The majority prefer ease and idleness, their only exertion being “the exercise to their lungs in shouting and inhaling cigarette smoke.” Community clubs can be of much service in remedying this great defect of the age in which we live, and the Senior Cadet training is also a help in the right direction. The need for filling the awkward gap after the foundations have been well laid, so as to prevent the walls from rotting before the roof gets on the growing human frame, is very real, and any organisation .that helps to fill the gap in the

right way will -certainly be welcome and assuredly become a factor in raising the physical status of the Dominion’s budding manhood.