THE CUBE BOATING CLUB

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2637, 19 September 1882, Page 3

THE CUBE BOATING CLUB

Size or numbers do not constitute strength. This is very clearly shown in everyday life. England is not a large country, and yet its colonies and dependencies embrace about one-seveiith of the land surface of the globe, and nearly onefourth of its population. In ancient history the tenth of the fact that quality not quantity tells, is shown by the prominence of such States as Sparta and Borne. The latter, originally starting from a small community living on an island in the Tiber, conquered the world. The fighting men of Sparta were extremely few in number, yet their training was such that ♦hey carried the day in the Peloponesian war, and dominated Greece for some considerable time. As Sparta stood to Greece generally, so does the Cure Boating Club of Kaiapoi stand to the rowing world of Canterbury. The number of the Cure Boating Club members may be said to be almost ridiculously email, for it is bnt thirteen. Their late annual report is a curious one. The annual subscriptions are placed at £l4 14s, and the prize money won by the Club at £BB 7s 6d. The thews, sinews, and pluck concealed in these thirteen members must be apparent when we compare the result of the season's exertions with the results obtained by other clubs. The Canterbury Rowing Club's annual report shows that it possesses 124 working members, 21 honorary members, and 6 life members, and yet the prize money it secured waa only £64. The Union Bowing Club in its annual report apparently makes no return of the number of members or the amount of prize money bagged. If the latter had been at all large we presume the framers of the report would have made the most of the fact. "We are quite justified, therefore, we think, in calling particular attention to this small but distinguished Kaiapoi Club. Bnt when we come to ask the reason why all this has occurred the matter is more difficult to explain. It may be argued that the Waimakariri is a larger river than the Avon, and consequently more adapted for practising on. But the Avon is, after all, quite large enough for all practical purposes, and some of its lower reaches are very fine ones. Cambridge holds its own against its sister University of Oxford," and yet there is no comparison between the rivers Thames and Cam. , The latter is admitted to be miserably small in a boating point of view. So that the reason of the Cure Boating . Club's success cannot very well lie in the , qualities of their river. Are their successes, then, to be attributed to the habits of these thirteen athletes P Do certain Lycurgian laws obtain in that distinguished club which are not to be found in other dull P We all know how Sparta gained its eminence. The citizens were in a constant state of training. They all messed at a common fable. Their every action was watched with a jealous care. They were not allowed to make love in an ordinary fashion. ! When married they were forced to visit their wives by stealth, and open connubial felicity waa only allowed to those individuals who had already gained their laurels. They were taught to despise luxuries, to show no emotion in the presence of riches, and to think of the glory of Sparta and of that alone. Learning was looked down upon as beneath their mission; death was preferable to defeat. Are somewhat the same laws in force among the members of the Cure Boating Club P If so their success is easily explainable, but none the less credit is due to them. Are these thirteen men in a constant state of training, do they all mess together devouring some healthy mixture, such as Spartan broth; do they despise luxuries and whiskey and water; have they sunk all desire for riches; do they prefer annihilation to being beaten on the river P Or on the other hand, are their successes attributable to the bracing air of Kaiapoi; to the calm tenor of the life of gentlemen living in that partially secluded spotP Whatever may be the secret of their success, that success is now a matter of history, and is a permanent record of the triumph of quality over quantity We wish the plucky little club all joy and a most prosperous season.