Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

Thomas Arnold and Friedrich Froebel, and the works of Charles
Darwin. 53 Brisbane Grammar School, the acknowledged premier
school in Queensland, 54
became, in 1876, the testing ground
for his pedagogical visions. He did his utmost to ensure that
the perversity, tyranny and immorality of schoolboy life in
Britain's elite institutions did not become a feature of his
new school, 55 and yet he emphasised a Christian education based
on 'discipline and moral tone.' In his own words, he stressed
"the development of character and physique no less than mental
power and examinational knowledge," the harmony of scholarship
and sportsmanship. 56
Roe gave "hearty encouragement" to "all
the manly games" that helped "to invigorate the body and character."
57 He introduced new activities such as lawn tennis and
rowing, directed the building of a new gymnasium and established
a Sports Fund for the maintenance of games. 58
His products
epitomised his ideal of the Christian gentleman, well-equipped
physically and psychologically to fight life's struggles in the
the world. In fact, they were indicative of the 'fittest'
possible Christian gentleman. 59 Roe's concern for the welfare
of his wards was influenced as much by the tenets of Social
Darwinsism as by the principles of muscular Christianity. 60
The publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species
in 1859 had a marked impact on the Victorians' mode of thought.
Darwinian theory on evolution by natural selection attracted
its adherents and critics among scientists, theologians, intellectuals
and social reformers of the age. Opposition to the
evolutionary hypothesis on religious and moral grounds paralleled
support of the doctrine at a working and. rhetorical level.
It was, of course, the oversimplified catchword of Darwinism,
'the struggle for existence' and 'the survival of the fittest',
which gained popular appeal. As Hofstadler has remarked, when
these phrases were "applied to the Life of man in society," it
was "suggested that nature would provide that the best competitors
in a competitive situation would win, and that this process
would lead to continuing improvement." 61 Some Australians
certainly offered a Darwinian explanation for social inequalities.
62
In the country's leading schools, traditional Christian
motives often masked Darwinian effect. Health-promoting
and competitive physical activities were considered central to
27