The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23. OUR SPORTING INSTINCTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 322, 23 January 1908, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23. OUR SPORTING INSTINCTS.

Lpull tile discovery of gold ill 1851, for many years every ship thai sailed fur Australia earrieil her two or three hundred passeiigeia, representing the youth .itid manhood of t'lie liritlsh race. These ativcntuiei> )iad not only (mid their passages, hut in many instances they liad -omelhing in hand 10 meet contingencies oil their arrival. Tliey were not drawn iroiii the slums—the smoky purlieu* of the great cities. Very far removed were uie\ iroin th- ' 'degenerate.' Their Wood was hot with the spirit that throbbed in the veins of the Uerserkor, Nor--1 wegian and li.tne, before ilie completing | .Norman came to add liis wealth ol bra ,v | and proud advent iircne.-s. What was | the life lo wtiii-li they came in the mad | search for gold? It was all one wide gamble. Whether it was in linking »aml>le. wle'lhcr il was in sinking investing so mtu-li lend c;i-h in mining M-ri|> in Collins street. W hat was, and 1 what is, mining but a speculation - a nanibl. V A life thid was all one huge gamble caul. 1 to the young --tliey were j mostly \oung- men who hail the eour- ; «jp io'part with parent*, relatives, I Iricnds. prospects however brilliant, and ■ vent il i"e away into tlie great unknown iiC t \ond the Tui't sea. These were ; ilie grandfathers of the men who peopie lliese southern lands to-day. and tliey go

i,i justify the belief that there is something in heredity. Visitors to these colonies are amazed fit the love of sport which everywhere prevails. 11l all .port there is nil element of chance which renders it far removed from a gamble, and in all sport, quite apavt Horn the actual player*, there is associated, more or less, what is indubitably gambling. Truly it may lie said we are born gammers; it is in our blood derived from our ancestors. "Such !us our fathers were, behold, so are we!"

A goodly number of years ago a French' iiKi n oil a visit to England wrote a very I amusing ((inscription of a game of cricket at it appeared to him. Said lie: "Three | slicks are driven into the "round, and then. some twenty yards from them, three oilier stick* are driven, ami a mail will] a still bigger stick in his hand mils in i'roil I of these sets of sticks. Oilier men. with all their strength and fo'.'-e. threw halls at these men. and the fun of the game consists in watching to see tlieni killed. Why tliey are nut killed is a great mystery.'' It is in a;m' since anyone was kiiTed at cricket, and if occasionally a player is hurt it very rarely happens that he is crippled ' for' life. But does not our race owe j nutch to the manly pastimes indulged in i ibe cricket and football fields? The men who shot so well at Agineourt had I been practising with the long-how on English meadows and in English forests | far years, and there thev not only lathered a knowledge of their weapon I i-iit ipiickness of sight, steadiness, and ! nerve' came to them. In the same way ! Inn- many of the various warriors who |h;ve brilliantly fought and nohly died t'.'V Britain had their earliest training I ill the lields of sport? The outdoor pasi t'.nes of our race, for success, demand | i>: iomitahle courage tliatli never falters

- i confidence that "we will win" as a lu 'tter of course. How often on the InitleHphi. when all seemed lost, have n»t the men of "Britain fought grim and firm, confident that victory in the eiH was certninly theirs? To courage be added patience and disciplino. -Vol only must the captain of the team he nbeynl. but a ready acquiescence must iv yielded to the umpire no matter how wrong he might l>e. The physical qualiti-*< of >treugtn and endurance the player have; quickness of ryej roadi* n ss and the ability to arrive at an inst nit and sound decision are born of til.- game. It i* an assured fact that in the development "of mind and body th«» young who devote themselves to the manly sports of old Kngland derive not only immediate pleasure of the pastime hm very many substantial and lasting gain* beside.

In the test games of cricket recently pi ived perhaps the most pleasing feature was the interest manifested h t v every ''! l ~s in Xew Zealand. The people of th" Commonwealth are colonials; we. in Hi : " Dominion, are also colonials; and Mi' sympathy that has been freely extended to our brothers across the Tasintn sea could not have been more sincere. more hearty, or uiore truly colonial. We may differ from them about reciprocity agreenifcnts. we may fling an Occasional sneer at them, biit at the bottom our sympathies are with them "every time.' 1 Though parted by .seas and Ion;: distances of desert waste, the people in thcs<' southern lands are first Australasians! Whatever thev may be j, lse come atter--a good wav after.