ATHLETICS IN AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 70, 16 December 1907, Page 9

ATHLETICS IN AUSTRALIA.

. INTERVIEW WITH Mil. CLARENCE ' . ... ■;,-; : M'kber. • ~ ■ (mom ouii special correspondent.) Melbourne, December 10 lostorday afternoon I had an interview with Mr. Olaronco Weber, champion wrestler and strong man. of Australia. Mr. Weber it will bo remembered beat Buttan Singh m a great wrestling match—the same Buttan Singh who, on November 9, boat Gus Kcnnert hero in 9 minutes. . "There is not," said Mr. Weber, "very much wrestling, done hero, what is dono is mostly . between, a few professionals; but the last .two years wo> have had an hmatour championship competition for the t), rc o weights, and this seems to be growing in popularity, as also does boxing pure and eimplo. The boxing competitions aro. of course,-, run by the Amateur Athletic Association. ' "Tho national ' gamo, however," Mr. ■VVober continued, "is football, and for six months j,i the year very littlo elso finds favour. There » here, I regret to say, far oo much/interest taken in the. gamo fngp the following pomf of viow. There, are far oo many crowds ,„ the pMdock-watching instead of playing the samo tliemsolvcs. On a good Saturday afternoon I have known as many as 80,000 people following up tho football games m different parts of Melbourne. No one, of course, objects to a bis crowd at an important match, but that all those pooplo should bo content to. go and simply watch othor men play , ordinary games is deplorable. And apart from theso crowds watching tho League games, there aro many thousands more watchers at the association and smaller club matches. The result is that practically all tho players here aro professionals,, paid for playing, cither directly or indirectly. Thoy are supposed to be amatour, but they all get gate money, it seems; tho murder came out last season, and now they are all classed as professionals, and quito right too. Football is a groat gamo if you play it yourself, but not if you play it by proxy. "Then we fiavo cricket in the summer time, and among the othor most important 'national sports' I would put ,wood-chopping. Tho competitions in this aro splendid in this country. Tho Scotch sports, I regret to say, are not taken up very much hero, as they are in Now Zealand. Since I wont to New Zealand 1 took a great Hieing to these, and overy Saturday afternoon now ■ a few of us meet and have great times. It is not a formal club, and wo don't.call ourselves by any namo, but wo put the shot, and throw tho hammer, and run and jump, and gonorally 'tiro ourselves out according to the best principles—the real principles—of athletics. "Swimming is another great Australian sport, especially in Now South Wales, though hero it is very popular too. But' tho groat .fault of athletics hero, as I said boforo, is the watching instead of playing. This, to my mind, quito accounts for tho poor types of physique one sees in the cities. Instead of putting on' a singlet and a pair of pants and going out and doing something, the avorago clerk dons a high collar and a black coat and goes' to the races, and watches horses run as hard as they can for a fow minutes, somotimes not for that length of time; or else he pnys some men to play football for him. This kind of thing is simply eating the heart out of athletics in Australia." Coming to the- sports adopted by tho women, Mr.. Weber said those were principally hockey, tenuis and crickot. There were some very fine ladies' cricket teams in Australia. Swimming was also very popular. Magnificent work in developing the present and future young women was also being done by tho Melbourne Girls' Guilds. Theso were supported almost wholly by the philanthrophy of Mr. MacClelland, and there were some 3300 girls and young women longing to thorn. They went in for gymnastics, physical culture,, and various games, the principal one of which was basket-ball. This was played in large halls. The 'basket' was at ono end of tho room, and from certain positions the girls bad to throw tho hall into this baskot, tho rule being that no throwing was dono oxcept by stretching both arms above the bead. This meant that to throw at all, the girl had'to lean back, stretch herself to her full height, and take a deep breath. Coming to tho children's sports, an Association had boon formed called the State School Amateur Athletic Association, for tilt? promotion of sports snob as running, -jumping, and so Forth, amongst boys and girls in the Stiito schools, and a championship mooting was hold uvnry year. Excellent, work is done horo,-sometimes extraordinarily excellent. Recently <mn hoy under M ran 100 yards in 11 sees. "Of course, he was u.i I'xci'.ptional hid, and personally I would nol -feel inclined to encourage too much of this 'record-breaking,'" added Mr._ Weber; "wo want Robd healthy boys and girls, nblc to run and jump and walk, rather than athletic abnormalities, Still, it was a groat feat for a boy under U."