THE SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 130, 25 February 1908, Page 6

THE SCULLING CHAMPIONSHIP.

0 It is not a small public that regards the sculling contest at Wanganui today as a national event.' For months, owing in large measure to the infectious enthusiasm of the people of Wanganui, the impending match has been kept prominently before the public eye, until to-day there can be few people wlio are not awaiting the result, with the utmost interest. To those timorous people who believe that New Zealanders are excessively devoted to sport, and inclined'unduly to venerate athletic prowess, the excitement of Wanganui, and the frank interest of the rest of the Dominion, will be regarded as depressing proofs of a most injurious national tendency. We have become quite accustomed in recent years to the anti-athletic j-eremiads of the prophets of pessimism and dissent, but their. svague generalisations have lost their power to alarm. The implication of Mr. Kipling's rebuke to the English affection for the flannelled fool arid the muddied oaf is now known to. bo as ' contrary to fact as the die-, turn that "the battle of, Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton." The attention which is being given to the sculling match is by no means an unhealthy sign. It means nothing much more .than the general anxiety of New Zealanders that a. New.Zealander should 'distinguish himself as.the finest living exponent of' one. of tlie very finest forms of physical skill and endurance. Hardly anyone who is interested in the. race will be thinking of Webb to-day as an independent entity., He .stands, or rather he will row,' merely as the., physical representative of .his nation. We do not suppose that a victory for Webb ;will, do very much in the way of assisting New-Zealand's trade, or even of increasing materially the number of occasions for outside remembrance of this Dominion's existence. Yet it will stimulate—only temporarily, of course—the national pride of New Zealanders. . And a real, national spirit is generally built up by a succession of such impulses to national feeling. The enthusiasm of this country for athletic, sport in all its forms has certainlly had none of the evil effects that, according to some writers, it ought to have had. That it has developed the national spirit cannot be doubted. We all desire intensely that 'our' representativeshould.' .-retain his honourable title, but, in the. event of his defeat, we -shall but admire the Australian challenger • the more for vanquishing so fine an opponent.. If there is any anxiety equal to the public's anxiety for a New Zealand victory, it "is that ''the contcst will be thoroughly fair and • equal, and ,unmarred, by anything -in the nature, of a foul, or a mishap to either contestant. Webb has shown that, he can bear victory modestly, ranch he, can; therefore,' be trusted to enduife defeat manfully and without bitterness, if defeat should be. his portion. We ! hope that lie will not be called upon to demonstrate this | fact, but above. ; everything else the public desires that the better man shall win. ' ■ <