RHODES SCHOLARS AND OXFORD SPORTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15497, 2 January 1914, Page 4

RHODES SCHOLARS AND OXFORD SPORTS.

It appears, says a London correspon-1 dent, that the Rhodes scholars at Oxford I are winning too many sporting events, and are too much to the fore in university athletic representation. They do so well, indeed, that suggestion to exclude them from competing has been in the air, without much serious support, it should be added. Nevertheless there is considerable dissatisfaction abroad and the subject has taken its place in the great array of complaint now active in respect of English athletic prowess generally. The idea set out by writers on the subject is that the Rhodes scholars succeed against the nativeborn undergraduates because of their advantage in years, and the fact that the distinction in athletics is one of their necessary qualifications. They also succeed because the English public school boy is not so athletically keen as lie ought to be, with the result that when he gees up to the university the great programme of sporting events there finds him hopelessly inadequate. In a letter to the Times Mr. Anthony Hope has reopened the matter, and he has been usefully answered by Mr. Gordon Inglis, of the Commonwealth office, in respect of Australian school athletics. One seems to find beneath the surface of Mr. Anthony Hope's criticism a good deal of feeling. He sees the Rhodes scholars, men and post-graduates, who compete against freshmen who are really boys. He sees them enjoying an advantage of some years in age and much experience in athletics. He thinks they should not be allowed to compete in level events in the freshmen's sports, and that they should be regarded as ineligible to represent their university unless under the age of 23; He even suggests that the athletic qualification enters too largely into the Rhodes scholarship selection, and as in terms of Mr. Rnodes's will it cannot—Mr. Hope graciously allows that it should not—be refused or grudged its proper place, ."in that proper place," he says, "it should be vigilantly kept." In a previous letter the well-known novelist made some remarks which seemed to show him as confident that the Rhodes scholars are nearly all athletes first and foremost, and, therefore, unfairly in athletic competition at the universities. Mr. Gordon Inglis recounts in his letter the method of selection of the New South Wales scholars. He shows that athletic supremacy does not count for more than scholastic distinction, at any rate at Sydney University, and that Mr. Hope and other critics are quite wrong in so -far as they think' it does. The gist of the matter seems to be in the fact that the. English public school boy is not so systematically urged to athletics as the embryo Rhodes scholar. When both are at the universityj. and the Rhodes scholar pulls off most of .the, collego and university evented and is preferred in university- representative sides, the undergraduate who is not a Rhodes scholar becomes angry. ; ": And *as " the athletic prowess of the Rhodes scholars is becoming increasingly. evident the feeling of the English undergraduate and his fiir.p'orterß is becoming more and more aiav«. -. The sporting Englishman is a curiou!i*toiiture. .*■■-•

THE GOSPEL OF GETTING ON. Id a striking address delivered recently to the students of Edinburgh University, Lord Haldane, Chancellor of the University, dealt with the prizes of life and how they are to be attained. "It is not true," he said, "that with the increase of numbers and competition life offers fewer prizes in,proportion to the number who are now striving for them. With the progress of science and the advance in the complicated processes of specialisation and distribution of function, there are arising more and more openings and.more and more chances for those who aspire to sue-.

ceed is the competition which exists everywhere. There are far more possible ways of rising, but the standards are rising also, and high quality and hard work are mora than ever essential The spread of learning has had a democratic tendency. Tbose who are to have the prizes of life are chosen on their merits more than ever before. It must, however, always be borne in mind that character and integrity count in the market place among those merits as well as do knowledge and ability. But wisdom means more than attention .to the gospel of getting on. Life will, at the end, seem a poor affair if the fruits o! its exertions are- to be no more than materig! acquisitions. From the cradle to the grave it is a course of development, and the development of quality as much as quantity ought. to continue to the last... For it is in the quality of the whole, judged in all its proportions, and in the outlook on 'the Eternal which has been gained, that the test of the highest success lies, the success that is greatest when the very greatness of its. standards brings, in lis train a deep sense of humility. I have seen something of men and of affairs. I have observed the alternations of success and failure in various professions and occupations. I have myself experienced many ups and downs, and in the course of my own life made abundant mistakes. It always interests me to ( look back and observe in the light of later and fuller knowledge how I came to fail on particular occasions. And.the result.of the scrutiny has been to render it clear that the mistakes and failures would nearly always have been avoided had I at the time been possessed of more real knowledge and of firmer decision and persistence. We all, 'or nearly all, get a fair number of chances in life, but we often do not know enough to be able to take them, and we still more often pass them by unconscious that they exist. Get knowledge and get courage, and when you have come to a deliberate decision then go ahead, and go ahead with grim and unshakable resolution to persist. It is not everyone who can do this, but everyone can improve his quality in this respect. It is partly matter of temperament, but it is largely matter of acquired habit of mind and body. You can train yourself to increased intellectual and moral energy as you can train yourself for physical efficiency in the playing field." There might be undue advantage in circumstances. There often was. But according to bis experience it made far less difference in the long run than was popularly supposed. What did make the difference was tenacity of purpose. To this he allied the social virtue of courtesy and urbane manners. Courtesy was an endowment which was well worth acquiring. He had, "to put its utility at it? lowest, seen many instances of gifted men ruining their chances of getting on in life simply from want of manners.