CARD-INDEXES AND ENCOURAGEMENT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 177, 13 November 1942, Page 8

CARD-INDEXES AND ENCOURAGEMENT

BUT NO REGIMENTATION

ILL very recently my interest in the Physical Welfare and Recreation Branch of the Internal Affairs Department has been negligible. It was not till some earnest people had begun to hint the damning word "profascist" and even the least sensationseeking dailies had quoted phrases such as "regimentation of youth" and "bureaucratic control rather than encouragement" that it occurred to me that there might be news-value in the work of the Physical Welfare Branch. It was this which led me to contact Miss Rena Stephenson, recently appointed’ Physical Welfare Officer for the Wellington district. From her own descriptions of the work she was doing I hoped to be able to establish in my own mind at least whether a glint of coloured shirts was as yet visible over the political horizon. Subsidies to Clubs Miss Stephenson herself is tall and fair, almost a Nordic type, in fact, but the last person in the world to arouse suspicion about the "regimentation of youth." "How does the Department work?" I asked. "Does it set up sports groups of its own or does it try to work through existing societies?" "Wherever possible we try to work through existing organisations, by increasing the membership and if necessary by subsidising them. It’s only if there’s no suitable organisation in the district that the Department sets up its own activities. Drama And Debating But the work of the Department, she emphasised, was not concerned entirely with sporting activities. The Physical Welfare and Recreation Branch came into being with the forty-hour week, and its object was to help people to make the best -use of their leisure time. Dramatic clubs and debating societies, art and musical appreciation circles were flourishing under the departmental aegis. _ "What is this system of card-indexing for schoolchildren?" I asked. "Do you do any work in connection with that?" "Yes, we all have to. It’s a lot of work for officers of the Departments and all done for the benefit of existing clubs and societies. "You see, as far as physical activities are concerned, there’s often some. sort of hiatus between the time the child leaves school, say at fourteen, and the

time he’s old enough to join a sports club, This means too often that the child drops sport altogether. "That’s where our card-index comes in. While at school each child fills in a card giving the names of the sports he is most interested in-it doesn’t matter to us what sport the child plays, but we like him to play something. Then we compile lists of all the children interested in a particular sport in that district and send the lists to the sports clubs concerned. If necessary, we help them with junior coaching, but many of the clubs themselves provide coaching for younger members." Dangers of War-Time Living In war-time, of course, when people had less spare time, it was all the more important that it should be used to the best possible advantage. Miss Stephenson mentioned the fact that the tuberculosis figures for women in British factories had shown an alarming increase, and that to combat this and similar dangers of war-time living the British Government had set up a Central Council for Recreative Training. "That’s why the work of our Branch is so important now," said Miss Stephenson. "We’re working harder than we’ve ever worked before. I’m kept fairly busy

arranging ‘keep fit’ classes for the W.W.S.A., giving lectures on diet and general health topics, and compiling lists of schoolgirls who want to play anything from ping-pong to croquet." The word "croquet" killed all my lingering doubts. No State bent on regimenting its youth for Fascist purposes, I reasoned would encourage its young

women to play croquet."

M.

B.