BOOMERANGING.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 20, 18 December 1906, Page 8

BOOMERANGING.

SERIOUS ATTEMPT TO MAKE AUSTRALIAN ART A REGULAR BRITISH SPORT. * That serious and scientific body the Anthropological Institute, London, is endeavouring to popularise the boomerang. An exhibition of the throwing of this weapon of the Australian aborigines has been given on Wormwood Scrubbs Common and the results were terrifying to most of the spectators. It Is fine exercise to throw a boomerang on a cold day, but to have the boomerang suddenly dart between your legs und knock you down is apt to diminish the enthusiasm of the greatest scientist. That is what happened on Wormwood Scrubbs. The members of the institute were pursued all over the common by twirling semi-circular pieces of hard wood and some of them narrowly escaped serious injury. The only ones in danger were the throwers. One of these Mr. H. F. S. Knowles, of Oxford, has spent three years practising with the erratic missile and hopes in another three years of constant practise to become as proficient as the Australian aborigines. ' The boomerangs used were lent by the British Museum and under Mr. Knowles’s manipulation theyi did extraordinary things. They sprang from his hand with a hiss of fury, leaped high in the air and then described graceful circles, until they sank after an absence of half a minute at the thrower’s feet. Often the boomerangs shot away 150 yards before returning. The secretary of the institute thinks that boomerang throwing is a splendid exercise, as it brings into play nearly all the muscles of tho arms legs and body.