There are only two schools in South Australia which merit the designation of public schools in the English sense, viz. St. Peter's Collegiate School and Prince Alfred College, both in the immediate neighbourhood of the city.
Adelaide is bisected by the river Torrens, where, by reason of a dam, a mile and a half of water is available for rowing. But the course is so tortuous that racing is limited to a mile. The accumulation of silt is so great, and the growth of weeds and rushes so rapid, that for some five months in the year the river is kept empty for necessary operations; and at the best of times the water is slow
and sluggish. At the annual regatta, under the Rowing Association, the rivals have often competed in a special race; but they ran the chance of being drawn to row private schools. In order to make rowing as important a part of school athletics as cricket and football, the present writer, who was then chairman of the Rowing Association, instituted in 1893 an annual race between these schools for a challenge shield, to be rowed on the tidal river at the Port, over a straight mile course. The boats used are half-outrigged, clinker, keelless fours, fixed seats, with a twenty-six-inch beam. The crews practise on the home water, and finish their preparation on the scene of the contest. So far, St. Peter's College has won each event in the easiest style. A race has also been established with the Geelong school. Of three, each of which has been of the closest, Geelong has won once, St. Peter's twice. The boats used are full outrigged clinkers, with sliding seats.
In spite of the inferior water, rowing at St. Peter's is becoming almost as popular with the boys as cricket and football. To this state of things their success against Prince Alfred and Geelong crews has materially contributed, as well
as the institution of school regattas. The club has a good boathouse, with the right class of boats for teaching and coaching, viz. steady, roomy, half-outrigged, clinker fours, with keels, convertible as fixed or sliders.
University Rowing.
There are three Universities of Australia—those of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Racing was first instituted when Sydney and Melbourne met on the water of the latter in string test gig fours over a three and a half miles course. In the following year they met on the Parramatta. Melbourne won on both occasions. The race was then discontinued, but in 1885 the Sydney University Boat Club was founded, and in 1888 the three Universities mutually agreed to establish the race as an annual event in eights, to be rowed in turn on the Parramatta, the Yarra, and the Port Adelaide rivers, over a three mile course. Of nine races rowed—in two of which Adelaide, and in one of which Sydney, did not compete—Sydney has won four times, Melbourne thrice, and Adelaide on two occasions. The presentation by Old Blues of Oxford and Cambridge of a magnificent cup, to be
held by the winners, has given a great stimulus to the race, and invested it with an importance which otherwise would not have attached to it. It has served to establish the continuity of the contest, and to connect the local Universities with their more famous elder sisters of England.
The Sydney U.B.C. undoubtedly takes the lead in prosecuting rowing. It promotes annual races for Freshmen, and intercollegiate fours between the three colleges of St. John's, St. Andrew's, and St. Paul's. Since their inauguration, in 1892, St. Paul's has won on every occasion except in 1894. In 1895 and 1896 the U.B.C. won the Rowing Association Eight-oar Championship.
There is an annual race in eights between Ormond and Trinity Colleges of the Melbourne University, besides a few other less important events, but the rowing spirit is not in such evidence as in Sydney and Adelaide. The latter is simply a teaching and examining University, with members so few that it is rather a matter of finding eight men to put in a boat than of picking or selecting a crew from a number of aspirants. Its success and enterprise are the more remarkable.