19073 Football i?t Australia 



Oxford and Cambridge. When Tennyson received 

 his Doctor's degree at the former, the young gentle- 

 men asked: "Did your mother call you early, Alfred 

 dear?" And when a Hindu prince was thus honored, 

 they cried: ''Have you used Pears' Soap?" 



Irreverence is not unknown outside the universi- irre-.erence 

 ties. Passing along a Sydney street, I overheard the ^''^ ""- 



following : common 



"That's Professor Jordan." 



"Who's he?" 



"The cove that's lecturing on Socialism." 



Throughout Australia and New Zealand athletic 

 contests acquire large prominence. The University 

 of Sydney has a strong Rugby team, only one of Rugby 

 several in the city which maintain through the winter 

 a continuous tournament, one or more matches being 

 set for every Wednesday and Saturday. But as the 

 five Australian universities are separated by pro- 

 digious distances, no intercollegiate contests take 

 place. For this reason the American custom of limit- 

 ing the athletic life of a university student to three 

 or four years of his actual attendance does not hold 

 m Australia. Once eligible, always so. The captain 

 of the Sydney University team had held his place 

 for some seven years after graduation. 



At Melbourne, Rugby was condemned as too 

 rough, and a new form of football was devised for the 

 state of Victoria. This involved a larger field with m vu- 

 more players, these being divided into "rovers" and ^°"^ ^'^"^^ 

 those who maintain a relatively fixed position. A 

 curious rule allows the referee at any time to stop the 

 play to count the men on either side. 



Cricket seems less popular than in England, and 



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