Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

THE LEGACY OF BRITISH VICTORIAN SOCIAL THOUGHT:
SOME PROMINENT VIEWS ON SPORT, PHYSICAL EXERCISE
AND SOCIETY IN COLONIAL AUSTRALIA
DAVID W. BROWN
UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
During the winter of 1884, Henry Sanderson Edmunds out-
Lined with clarity his thoughts on a popular topic of discussion
for his age, 'Public Education', in a respectable New South
Wales journal, The Sydney Quarterly Magazine. 1
Edmunds, like many
pedagogues of the period, saw the need for education to progress
with the demands of a changing society. He stressed the importance
and value of the inclusion of technical courses in the
school curriculum. His sense of 'progressivism' did not end
here however, for he was also eager to apply the emerging ideas
of the eminent social scientist, Herbert Spencer, to the educational
setting. He deemed that "a knowledge of physiology and
of the laws of health" were an 'absolute necessity' in the
"mission of moulding the upgrowing generation into good men and
citizens". In complete emulation, Edmunds echoed the Spencerian
maxim 'the first requisite to success in life is to be a good
animal', and regarded any system of education which did not
assist in developing the physical faculties of the country's
youth to the full as being imperfect. Physical health to Edmunds
was, of course, equated highly with mental and moral well-being,
and in this regard his advice and rhetoric were much more ortho-
dox. He promoted the concept of the sound mind in the healthy
body, a true Victorian obsession. 2
He advocated regular instruction
in drill and calisthenics, a considered Victorian
practice. 3
And he united his treatise with the Arnoldian belief
that children must be educated in the principles of Christian
manhood, a typical Victorian ideal. Indeed, the sentiments ex-
pressed in Edmunds' discourse, and particularly with reference
to physical education, were quite indicative of some general
attitudes held not only towards education but also towards
other facets of nineteenth-century Australian life. Both
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