CANADIAN GIRLS ENJOY THE OUTDOOR LIFE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 237, 7 January 1944, Page 16

CANADIAN GIRLS ENJOY

THE OUTDOOR LIFE

NE more thing that is going to happen after the war, if we listen to the optimists, is the organisation on a large scale of physical and recreational education in New Zealand. To help in paving the way, Miss Margaret Dunning has been brought out from Canada to fill a national appointment with the Y.W.C.A, as Physical and Recreational Instructress. She is a graduate of the Margaret Eaton School of Physical Education, University of Toronto, Canada. She is also Head Counsellor of Camp Tanamakoon, in the woods and lakes of Northern Ontario, one of the best-equipped camps for girls in North America (the photographs on this page were taken there). But if I hadn’t known who she was, I would have guessed at once that she lived an outdoor life, because her skin was glowing and her eyes were clear. What surprised me most

was to see how young she was. 1 had expected someone in her thirties or forties, but she is not past her early twenties. When I went to ‘interview Miss Dunning she had only been in New Zealand a week, but it had been a very crowded week in which she had inet many people and seen many places. "What I particularly notice," she told me, "is the number of well-dressed children here. They all seem to be rosy cheeked and well-cared for. And another thing is the meat. In Canada our meat is very much rationed. If we are being invited out to a very special event, one of the inducements is a meat course, The word goes round that there is going to be meat! So of course we go. Another thing that interests me is your Maori names, which are very beautiful. But I was prepared for them, because I came across on the ship with some New Zealand men who taught me to pronounce some names. They also taught me your money Values. I know how many pennies in a Malf-crown, but

I’m not sure yet wnether a half-crown is,a reasonable price to pay for any particular thing or not." I was enjoying just listening to her voice-her Canadian accent is very easy to listen to-when I woke up to the fact thet she was telling me something about camping life in Canada. "In Canada and the U.S.A. camping is developed to a very high degree. It is not just a way of spending holidays, it is regarded as a training in democratic living, as an education by a practical method for communal harmony. People have to learn to live together. So camping is included in the curriculum of all the physical education colleges, and in the last term the students live in the camps for practical experiments. Of course there are all the attributes of ordinary camp life-swimming, hiking, archery, horse-riding, songs round the camp-fire, everything like that, but there is an underlying seriousness and purpose as well." Miss Dunning hopes to learn new ideas from New Zealand camps and to introduce here something of the Canadian outlook. In the New Year she is going to .camps at Rewa Valley, Pelorus Sound, and at Solway. The first two are for employed girls, the third for school girls. Many Types of Camps "In Canada, there are as many types of camps as there are people," she told me. "We have permanent camps and holiday camps. Since the war, girl campers have been taking up fire-rangers’ work. They learn to handle the axe «and the cross-saw, to build safe fire-places, and clean up camps. And we have many English ‘war guests’ in our camps." -Miss Dunning hopes to give courses in New Zealand for Camp Directors and Camp. Counsellors and for women directing Church Youth Groups. Such courses will embrace lectures; discussions, and demonstrations on camp administration and camp programmes, including water sports and water safety, camp crafts, drama in camp, camp worship, nature: lore in camp, and camp recreation. Of her appointment she says "It is what-

I love-a challenging job."

V.

C.