EARLY ATHLETIC ACTIVITIES

Southland Times, 16 October 1942, Page 3

EARLY ATHLETIC ACTIVITIES

Sir Robert Anderson (By Frank Mussen) When the young Robert Anderson arrived in Invercargill from Queenstown to embark on a commercial career he boarded at the home of Mrs Porter, of Spey street, and his fellow boarder was A. M. Burns, of Riverton, who in later years became manager of The Press in Christchurch. Like many other boys of the Spey, Yarrow and Gala street areas his ambition to become a successful athlete was fired by the track and field sports competitors at the great annual fixtures of the Southland Caledonian Society held on the Queen’s Park grounds. His early choice of special endeavour was pole vaulting and he became the best amateur pole vaulter in New Zealand under the banner of the Invercargill Amateur Athletic Club, the first body of its class in New Zealand, a club practically promoted by a famous athlete and Rugby footballer named O’Donnell, who gained an outstanding name as a ball player under the Rugby code in New Zealand and New South Wales. Always determined and thorough in his methods, the lad from The Lakes used to hire or borrow a horse on Saturday afternoons and ride to Otatara to be coached in vaulting by Harry Ackers, a noted New Zealand professional pole jumper, who lived in that district. KEEN CRICKETER The young amateur had a special blue gum pole made for his use, tough and pared down fine, but really very heavy in comparison with the leaping sticks used by the crack performers of the present generation of amateur athletes. He was also a good runner, a first-class Rugby footballer and cricketer. ■ His principal cricket interests were centred in G. A. U. Tapper’s Eleven, a club which played on the reserve at the corner of Dee and Gala streets, opposite the hospital. The late George Tapper was a wonderful cricketer, hampered by having to use a crutch throughout life, but a good batsman and fielder and an enthusiast of the first water. He was afterwards, known in many leading centres of New Zealand for his cricketing activities. _ Robert Anderson was a very promising swimmer and was self-taught, a fact borne out by the reason for his taking to the water. Two of his friends of those days, brothers living next door, were told in his hearing by their father that they were not to indulge in their hobby of boating on the dangerous New River estuary unless they learned to swim. “If you do not learn yourselves I will get somebody to teach you,” enjoined the parent, “and that goes for you, too, Anderson!” “To be taught” was an insult in those days when athletic coaching was almost unknown. The youthful trio held a council of war, and resorted to the Invercargill Baths, a disused gravel pit opposite the Invercargill Railway Station, and fitted up for swimming by the Town Council. Within a fortnight the self-taught trio could pass muster as swimmers. In after life one of the three friends became Sir Robert Anderson and another, the youngest of the boys, Sir Gerald Mussen, of Melbourne. The very promising athlete, _ Robert Anderson, presently gave up his ideas of attaining high rank as a sports exponent, a career for which he was eminently fitted by reason of his physique and blooming health, to follow closely a commercial career, with music and debating studies as his after-work relaxations. PUBLIC BENEFACTOR "Southland is very much poorer as a result of his passing,” said Mr W. Bell, chairman, in paying a tribute to Sir Robert Anderson at the meeting of the Southland High Schools Board yesterday. Mr Bell said that Sir Robert had been a member of the board for several years and he had also been chairman of the board. He had been very generous and had never failed to assist any good cause. A motion of sympathy was carried by the board. "His life is a brilliant example for young men of today,” said Mr T. Golden, chairman of the Southland Hospital Board, in paying tribute to Sir Robert Anderson at a meeting of the board yesterday. He said that Sir Robert had been a public benefactor and he had a great record of local body service. Though Sir Robert was born in Queenstown he had come to Invercargill as a boy and he could rightly be claimed as one of Southland’s brilliant sons.

Referring to Sir Robert as a public benefactor, Mr Golden said he had given away more than many wealthy men made. In relieving cases of hardship and in giving to the needy, he had saved the board hundreds of pounds. A man of his good qualities and brilliance would be hard to replace in the community. A motion of sympathy with Lady Anderson was carried.