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The Spike or Victoria College Review June 1930

Inter-College Debate

page 11

Inter-College Debate

In the hope that the contest would become an annual one, wherein some trophy would be the reward of the winning team, Training College and Victoria College met in debate. The contest took place in the Training College Hall on Wednesday, 30th April, and was between teams of three speakers, the subject being, "That too much attention is paid to sport in New Zealand," Training College having chosen the affirmative.

The teams were:—T.C.: Mr. J. Cowan, Misses P. Buckley and Z. Henderson. V.U.C.: Mr. W. P. Rollings, Miss C. Forde and Mr. G. R. Powles. Mr. F. Cormack made an extremely capable Chairman and Mr. G. G. G. Watson judged the debate. Although the weather had proved anything but kind, a large audience listened in attentive quiet.

Mr. Cowan, opening for T.C., pointed out that a defence of N.Z. sport must include horse-racing and gambling, and emphasised that sport must be subsidiary to work and used as an aid to life. We had lost our sense of proportion in this matter. After the rather startling statement that the next session of Parliament would be conducted "with honesty of thought," and that little notice would be taken of it compared with football results. He deplored with vigour our hero-worship of the athlete and the tendency to make the schools have greater regard for brawn than brains, and concluded an excellent opening speech with a reference to the injustice of appointing secondary school teachers on sport qualifications only and excluding applicants of proved scholarship, giving with commendable directness some local examples.

Mr. Rollings quietly opened the case for the negative by explaining his team's division of labour and pointing out that they merely bore a shield and had only to answer the case put forward. Bravely brandishing his shield, Mr. Rollings proceeded to state that all nations, particularly Germany and Czecho-Slovakia, had, after the war, striven to support an ideal of physical culture and that even the Training College in Dunedin had an extra course in physical culture and sport He, too, deplored "questionable forms of sport," such as horse-racing and gambling, and—horresco referens—boxing! "What would New Zealanders be doing in their spare time if they were not occupied in Sport?" he asked.

Miss Buckley then brandished her sword in favour of the motion and declared that Mr. Rollings's shield was merely a screen. Our people were tending to become mere spectators at the athletic show and viciousness was becoming apparent. The decline in culture was attributable to sport, and the athlete of the day attracted more attention than a great scientist like Sir Ernest Rutherford. "New Zealand will be brought to judgment for the worship not of Mammon but of muscle," was her Parthian shaft.

Miss Forde took up her leader's shield and carried it with a becoming grace. Sport was not to kill time, but to improve leisure hours. The tired industrial worker seeks relief in sport and must be allowed to do page 12 so. (The audience with commendable restrain refrained from mentioning "elbows.") International sport, she averred, was as great a factor in the lives of nations as international politics. Even her opponents would wish to be known as "sportsmen."

Miss Henderson, somewhat like Sir Bedevere, drew forth Excalibur for the third time. She also attacked gambling as an attendant of all our sports and pointed out its economic effect on the nation. We had introduced pests such as deer and rabbits to provide sport and were now reaping the result of our folly in despoiled forests and crops. She finally drove her shining weapon into the breasts of at least her male opponents by declaring that adoration by young and inexperienced girls for apparently splendid and successful athletes sometimes resulted in matrimony, and then the mere athlete was too often found "anything but an efficient breadwinner or pleasant companion."

Mr. Powles, extracting the blade with apparent calm, told a little tale about a fairy person whose name sounded suspiciously like "E. Ore" (vide A. A. Milne), but luckily refrained from carrying his simile too far. We applied our minds to business, he said, and our bodies to sport. This made for a splendidly balanced outlook. Sport had given to the British people an upright attitude of mind. Americans carried business into sport, but Englishmen crried their sport into business, and hence the high business morality in British countries.

Mr. Rollings, in reply, bethought himself of daylight saving, and Mr. Cowan with vim and vigour reiterated the arguments of the affirmative speakers. After the audience, in spite of chilled hands and feet, had exhibited great enthusiasm, and Chairman requested Mr. Watson to deliver judgment. V.U.C. was declared by the judge to have the honours of the debate and he adjudged Mr. Powles the best debating speaker of the evening. Training College, declared Mr. Watson, need not feel dishonoured in defeat. They had gone down before heavy artillery after a most excellent stand. The standard of speech and of debate had been exceedingly high.

We think that the margin of difference could have been but little indeed, and look forward to seeing this debate an annual and eagerly anticipated event.