CHAPTER XV 



THE AUSTRALIAN AT PLAY 



AS might be expected from a people which 

 allots eight hours out of the twenty-four to 

 recreation, the Australians are devoted to out- 

 door sports of all kinds. The climate assures so 

 large a proportion of fine days, the cities have 

 been provided so liberally with playing-grounds, 

 and the hours of labour are so short, that it could 

 hardly be otherwise. As a result, the Australian 

 is sometimes reproached with devoting too much 

 time to play, though there is something to be said 

 in favour of a national sentiment which regards 

 it as a matter of course that every young man 

 shall be able to swim, to ride a horse, and to 

 handle a gun or a rifle. The president of an 

 Australian Science Congress recently proposed 

 no doubt jocularly that research should be in- 

 itiated to the end that the bacillus of sport might 

 be eradicated from the rising generation; but 

 Australians are not able to forget that a full recog- 

 nition of their existence was first obtained in the 

 Motherland by the success of their bands of 

 cricketers. 



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