Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

influential and powerful personalities had produced its verdict
sport was neither a vice within the Public Schools Association
nor an ostentatious activity patently in need of greater
restriction. If the schools did show a strong interest in
sport the conference appeared to pass the judgement that it was
a "pardonable
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sin".
The events of 1910 pushed Adamson more into the public
limelight than at any other time and he was forced in the defence
of his own position, and the reputation of Wesley, to
expound his views on the aims of education and sport. The most
valuable clues to his thinking and actions emerge during this
period. Fundamentally, he was strongly opposed to the idea that
schools should be "knowledge shops", a central argument Adamson
put to a meeting of Wesley's parents that he called to rebuff
Kent Hughes's accusations of his administration. What was crucial
for boys was "a training in the art of life - the more
abundant the life the better the school". 48
However much
Adamson held to this belief he probably recognised that parents
would need some greater reassurances on the destiny of their
children. He provided these by a vision few in the audience
could resist. He declared:
A great public school must then devote all its
machinery towards sending out boys who are many
sided; who have as far as possible the element
of selfishness reduced or eliminated; who have,
in fact, the capacity of a devotion to a cause;
and its duty is to aim at the training of captains
not clerks, - or if they start as the latter,
they should still have the power to show the powers
of the former should the opportunity offer. 49
In the moulding of the patrician 's character and moral behaviour
the ability to lead would depend upon the recognition and exercise
"of justice - in small things as well as great", and those
who had to serve the leaders should not have to suffer any unnecessary
inconvenience. 50
It was in the training of this
elite from a general populace that competitive sport could prove
its value - the games field held vast potential for learning
about fairness, integrity, honest effort and the qualities of
Leadership. But Adamson also believed that it was only
"athletics of a cleaner and better kind" that could provide
these crucial lessons, hence his firm views on the importance
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