SCHOOLBOYS' TOUR OF AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20472, 16 February 1932, Page 11

SCHOOLBOYS' TOUR OF AUSTRALIA.

A HAPPY TIME. (FROM OtJR OWN correspondent.) LONDON, January 5. The twenty-one public schoolboys who left England ou August 15th for a tour of Australia arrived back in London yesterday. They had travelled by the Moreton.Bay from Western Australia. The boys looked bronzed and happy, and they brought back with them'some of the trophies of their hunting trips and of other fexperiences on their tour, including four different types of lizards, two types of opossum, as well as boomerangs and arrows bartered froiu aboriginals they had met on out-back trips, and stockwhips they had been taught to use while out riding on cattle stations. When they left Australia they also had a live wallaby, but it died on board. The party comprised boys from the following schools: Eton, Harrow, Marlborough, Glenalmond, Winchester, Charterhouse, ltepton, Radley, Sedbergh, Oundle, Brndfield, Ampleforth, Stowe, and Chillon. They were in charge of Mr J. W'J Parr, a master at Winchester, whose two assistants were Lieut. M. E. D. Cuming;, an Etonian, now in the King's Roval Rifle Corps, and Mr D. G. White, of Christ Church, Oxford, the latter of whom sailed to Australia >ri Tune to make advantfe arrangements for the reception of the party. The itinerary was by v- ay of th* Panama Capal to New Zealand, where the party transhipped lor Sydney. l From thence they toured parts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia. Mr White stated that on an average thev had travelled about eight miles an hour, dav and night, since they set out from England. Everywhere they had found the greatest hospitality, and they had received . numerous invitations from public men all over the Continent to make a return visit as soon as tliey could. One of the most exciting «xpfi iences was a kangaroo hunt. ' From the moment of arrival in Australia to their departure they had not spent a niglit in an hotel, but had rf ceived either public or private hospitality at every stage. Three of the boys have declared their intention of going back to Australia to work on stations and nt the sheep depots.