Propuesta de clasificación de juegos teatrales

From November 1866 until the early months of 1867 the western district team was under the captaincy of Tom Wills. As the tour proceeded throughout NSW, Wills played less of a role and was finally usurped or at least equalled in prominence by the English professional Charles Lawrence. It was Lawrence who, one year later, resurrected the idea of an aboriginal tour and successfully captained the team in England.497

When the aboriginal team, with Wills as captain, arrived in Sydney it was Charles Lawrence who greeted the team on their arrival from Melbourne. The team stayed at Lawrence’s Manly Beach hotel. From this point Lawrence was an intimate member of the tour.498 As the first tour proceeded throughout NSW under Gurnett, it became increasingly disorganised. Lawrence, who seemed a stabilising influence, took on an increasing role in managing the black team. The partition between Wills and the

495

Geelong Advertiser, 27 February 1867, p. 3.

496

Unfortunately no court records pertaining to the matter were available. See for further discussion, Geelong Register, 7 March 1867, p. 3. Geelong Advertiser, 23 March p. 3. The events surrounding the arrest are complicated by the misinterpretation of the names of one of the complainants. Jarrett, one of the businessmen with whom Wills dealt with has been mistakenly assumed to have been Gurnett in some reviews. For example, see David Sampson, ‘The Nature and Effects Thereof Were ... by Each of Them Understood’: Aborigines, Agency, Law and Power in the 1867 Gurnett Contract’, Labour History, no. 74, May 1998, pp. 54-69. In an otherwise carefully crafted and informative article, Sampson is not aware of Tom Wills’ role in the breakdown of the relationship between the key antagonists. He goes ‘In Sydney in February 1867, a rupture between Gurnett and Hayman, not the efforts of the Board, sabotaged the Gurnett contract and the first attempt at an English tour. Gurnett had Hayman and Wills arrested for breach of contract ‘in the middle of the match’, and following their release on the security of Charles Lawrence and a Mr O’Brien of Tattersalls …’

497

For more background on Charles Lawrence, see W. J. Goold, ‘The Sport of Newcastle-Cricket’,

The Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society Journal, vol. IX, part X (July 1955), pp. 149-52. Also, W. J. Goold, ‘Charles Lawrence-“The Old Master”’, Newcastle and Hunter District Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, January 1951, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 49-53. There are numerous secondary sources that give brief details of Lawrence. For example, see, Derriman, True to the Blue, pp. 18-9.

498

aborigines thickened. Within his sphere of declining influence Wills slowly drifted from centre stage. The increasing prominence for Lawrence was reflected in descriptions of the matches and in the equal promotion of Wills and Lawrence in advertisements for matches.499 By the tour’s conclusion in May 1867, Lawrence was more instrumental in its organisation than Wills. Wills’ reaction to Lawrence’s ascendance during the tour is not recorded in remaining archives.

The arrest and brief gaoling of Tom Wills in early 1867 afforded Lawrence the opportunity of providing security for the release of Wills from custody. The impression that remains is that Lawrence was a stabilising influence on the tour. By the time of the Illawarra match in April 1867, Lawrence was captain of the aboriginal team. It was an incontestable sign of his growing influence on the field. It was his name, not the name of Wills that was given prominence, in the advertising for this match.500

In the early months of 1867 the troupe was touring provincial NSW. It gradually became clear that any trip to England was unlikely. Gurnett was revealed to be a confidence trickster with a record of fraud. With the promised trip to England now a false hope and the tour entrepreneur Gurnett revealed as a shyster, the tour lost its way. The newspaper reports lost their sparkle. The last game in which money was to be earned for the trip home was ‘through the instrumentality of Mr Lawrence and Mr Hayman …’.501 The troupe limped and tottered back to Melbourne in May 1867. The exotic was now commonplace. Indifference displaced curiosity. The team was almost forgotten by the Melbourne press. A disorganised waterlogged tour concluded with a final dreary affair in cold, gloomy Melbourne in May.502 Tom Wills barely rated a mention in the Melbourne press. When the tour folded and Gurnett’s humbug was

499

Sydney Sporting Life, 30 March 1867, p. 3. Quite early on in the tour, it was suggested that Lawrence was to tour England with the team. There was no indication that he was to replace Wills but rather Lawrence was an addition to the team. See, Bell’s Life in Sydney, 2 March 1867, p. 2. See Sydney Sporting Life, 27 April 1867, p. 3. Despite the rise of Lawrence there is no obvious attempt to write Wills out of the tour in favour of Lawrence.

500

Illawarra Mercury, 9 April 1867, p. 2, Report of Aborigines v Illawarra Club. Lawrence and Wills played. By this stage Lawrence is the captain.

501

Illawarra Mercury, 23 April 1867. It is Lawrence who towards the end of the tour comes in to assist. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1867, p. 5. Broke, the team is to play a Sydney XI with Wills and Lawrence helping the aborigines. Lawrence was seen as one of the real helpers of the tour and now has usurped Wills in prominence. ‘Doubtless many persons will gladly assist Mr. Lawrence in his praiseworthy efforts. We wish him success, and hope that ample means may be raised to enable the blacks to get back once again to Lake Wallace’.

502

Weekly Age, 10 May 1867, p. 3. Only 500 people attended this match. It was dull, it rained and the public was now indifferent to the aboriginal team. There was little or no mention of Wills.

revealed there was no invective privately or publicly directed at Wills. He was regarded as much a casualty as was everyone else. The management of the tour was an incoherence of ambition, greed and haphazard shonk.503

In the middle of 1867, well after the aboriginal team had returned to Victoria, Tom Wills became aware of another attempt to take the team to England. Charles Lawrence was the instigator of this revival. The news was unexpected. The newspapers give a clear indication of Wills’ dissatisfaction that Lawrence had now assumed control. Wills, living in the family home at Point Henry, Victoria, received a letter from Lawrence in the spring of 1867. In the letter Lawrence outlined the new ‘celebrated’ aboriginal tour. The reaction of the parochial Geelong press was thin-skinned and miffed on behalf of their local sporting hero. Taking umbrage at Lawrence’s leadership of the team as a personal insult for the people of Corio, the Geelong press came out in defence of Wills. The Geelong view was that Lawrence, having undermined Wills, had now prised the troupe from his care:

Mr Wills of Point Henry has received a letter from Mr Lawrence, who has now the control of the celebrated aboriginal cricketers … in this match they will have to play against their old captain Mr Wills. Bye the by, we believe this is the first intimation that gentleman has received of Mr Lawrence having control of the aboriginals it appears Mr Wills, having polished the Blacks up, is now to have nothing to do with them, and others are to reap the fruits of his labour. Mr Lawrence is doubtless a good coach, and first rate fellow. With all his cricketing talent we doubt if he will be able to manage them better than one of their own countrymen did.504

The reaction in Melbourne was attenuated, less personal and less prone to offence than its smaller self-conscious rival. The second source for Wills’ grievance came from the pen of William Hammersley who indicated Wills’ anger at Lawrence’s taking over the role of sole captain. Neither Wills nor Lawrence made reference to this changeover in surviving letters or diaries.505

503

At the end of the tour there was almost no analysis of events. Analysis was confined to brief criticism of Gurnett and bemoaning another failure of colonial society in its treatment of aborigines.

504

Geelong Advertiser, 12 September 1867, p. 2. Sydney comment on the matter was almost non- existent. There was little analysis of this change to Lawrence or even intercolonial angst over the change in the metropolitan papers.

505

Hammersley suggests that he had personal contact with Wills over this matter. See, Hammersley in Australasian, 14 September 1867, p. 332, ‘Mr Wills writes to me, dated Tuesday, to say that he had just received a note from Lawrence, which was the first intimation he had that the blacks were engaged,

There have been suggestions that Wills’ alcoholism was responsible for his not being selected for the second tour. There is no evidence to confirm this.506 There were most likely several factors that conspired to exclude Wills from the second, more substantial tour. These include the fact that Lawrence had harboured a longstanding desire to conduct such a tour with an aboriginal team and now had an opportunity; Tom Wills’ bungled attempt at organising a match at the Domain leading to his arrest had probably diminished his chances; loss of money from the previous venture; that Lawrence probably had more cricketing contacts in England than Wills; and finally a financial source for the tour that second time around emanated from Sydney and did not include a pedlar of deceit like Gurnett.

Charles Lawrence coveted the idea of an English tour by an aboriginal team. He said as much in his diary. In recalling how he wished to remain in Australia after the 1861-2 English tour Lawrence noted:

… for I thought I should soon make a fortune for I had an idea or a presentiment after I had seen the Blacks throw the Boomerang and Spears that if I could teach them to play cricket and take then to England I should meet with success this impression never left my mind until I had succeeded in forming an aboriginal team and took them to England in 1868 previous to this coming off a second all England Eleven captained by George Parr came to Australia and after their departure for home I commenced to collect the Blacks and parted with my business in Sydney and went to Manly Beach and soon after to Lake Wallace in Victoria this was to be the Depot and training ground before our departure for England I remained nearly two months here teaching them and getting them to make Boomerangs and spears and do athletic games which pleased them very much and they soon became proficient and willing to do anything that I would … to learn.507

This recollection of events gave very little credit to the role of Tom Wills and others. It also ignored the fact that personal debt was a probable motivation for Lawrence.

and that he was quite taken by surprise at the news. From the tone of Mr Wills’s letter I should fancy he is a little hurt at being quietly thrown over board in the matter, but I may be mistaken’.

506

See Chapter Six of thesis, ‘The Sons of Lush: Tom Wills, Alcohol and Colonial Sport’.

507

Charles Lawrence’s diary. My thanks to Bernard Whimpress for access to the diary. No changes to original punctuation made.

There was a limited critique of Wills’ role in the first tour and few hints that pointed to reasons for his exclusion the second time round. There was no specific criticism of Wills after the failed first tour, particularly with respect to the way in which he captained and behaved with the team. He was in fact, almost universally praised for his role.508

When Lawrence assumed control of the team, certain of his noble characteristics and behaviours were highlighted in a manner that had not been the case when Wills was captain. These sporadic comments about Lawrence’s management may be construed as gentle rebuffs to their previous management.

Lawrence took on the role as spiritual adviser and shepherded the team to church services on Sunday. Charles Lawrence’s public display of religious devotion was an obvious difference from the period the aboriginal team spent with Tom Wills. There were hints that suggested public approval of an overall improvement in behaviour. When Wills was praised on the first tour it was for his cricket abilities and broader observations of his care were never highlighted.509 This implied allusion to a previous lack of religious observance during the initial tour might have cost Wills significantly. When Charles Lawrence assumed control of the aboriginal cricket team, his assiduous attention to their moral upbringing and attendance at church was cited on more than one occasion. It suggests that Lawrence was more caring of the team’s overall welfare. Whatever interpretation is correct, there is little direct evidence that Wills was in any way held personally accountable in the public mind for either misbehaviour or the consequences of the first tour. Regardless of the exact motivations, Charles Lawrence

508

Australasian, 11 May 1867, p. 588, ‘With reference to these sable cricketers we are sorry to have to state that Mr Wills has also suffered considerably through the failure of Mr Gurnett to carry out his undertaking’.

509

For references to church going and religious influence, see Weekly Age, 4 October 1867, p. 4. See Bell’s Life in Sydney, 30 November 1867, p. 3; Weekly Age, 25 October 1867, pp. 4-5, ‘… a marked improvement in their bearing is noticeable …’. Illawarra Mercury, 12 February 1869, p. 2. ‘A number of them attended Divine service at the Congregational Church on Sunday last …’. Bell’s Life in Sydney, 30 November 1867, p. 3. ‘In general behaviour and conduct these men do great credit to their mentor. They are very temperate, neat and tasteful in their dress, attend Church with Mr Lawrence regularly on Sundays; and are evidently desirous of improving in moral and social standing … quite aware that they are in good hands …’. Weekly Age, 11 October 1867, p. 4. ‘On Sunday morning last nine of the aboriginal players accompanied Mr Lawrence to the Church of England and most of them previously expressed a desire to attend church’. Illawarra Mercury, 5 November 1867, p. 4, from the Warnambool Examiner, ‘The care taken of the blacks by him when they were under his hostelry at Manly Beach created a favourable impression on the minds of the aborigines … High character borne by Mr Lawrence not only a

resurrected the stillborn aboriginal tour and opportunistically grabbed his chance later in 1867. Lawrence’s part in conjuring the release of Wills from arrest in February 1867 marked him as reliable and trustworthy.

Modern writers have tended to uncritically and obligingly cast Wills as being wronged by Lawrence. In so doing, these critiques ignore Wills’ own meddlesome and inept entrepreneurial attempts as a factor in the early part of the tour. Wills is cast as having an idealised relationship with the aboriginal cricketers, which is at odds with some of his crass behaviour. For example, Wills was not beyond blackening his face at the expense of the aboriginal cricketers at a later point in his life. In 1872, he captained a team of ‘the natives’ who blackened their faces for a pantomime and parodied the aboriginal cricketers to the mirth of spectators. It became another opportunity for the Melbourne press to portray such parody as beneath the metropolitans but perhaps typical of what one may expect in Geelong.510

Part of this acceptance of an idealised relationship between Wills and the aboriginal team comes from his family’s early experiences in the 1840s with the Djab wurrung language group in western Victoria.511 Tom’s warmth towards, and affinity with, the local aboriginal people was recalled by three family members – his father, his brother Horace and H. C. A. Harrison. The last two are recollections long after the death of Tom Wills.512

Tom Wills and his family lived near Mt William, western Victoria. Horatio had settled the family on land that was lived on by the Djab wurrung language group. The

as a cricketer but in his social capacity is a sufficient guarantee that his charge will be well cared for …’. Also see Lawrence’s diary, for more on Christian influence.

510

Geelong Advertiser, 6 May 1872, p. 2. Argus, 7 May 1872, p. 5. Geelong Advertiser, 27 April 1872 p. 2. Geelong Advertiser, 19 December 1873, p. 2.

511

Communication with Ian Clark, The Djab wurrung people were a language group around Moyston, western Victoria. This word is pronounced with a silent ‘w’. The following are used interchangeably in various references, the b=p, and t=d. Clark has written in detail about this area of Victoria, see, Ian D. Clark , Place Names and Land Tenure - Windows into Aboriginal Landscapes: Essays in Victorian Aboriginal History (Melbourne: Heritage Matters, 1998). For more detailed context on western Victorian aborigines see, Ian D. Clark, That’s My Country Belonging to Me: Aboriginal Land Tenure and Dispossession in Nineteenth Century Western Victoria (Melbourne: Heritage Matters, 1998).

512

See letter, Horatio Wills to Tom, 1 May 1853, where he spoke of the affectionate regard the Mt William aborigines had for Tom. Harrison recalled in his autobiography that Tom Wills learned to speak the local aboriginal dialects, singing their songs and imitating their voices. Mancini and Hibbins, Running with the Ball, p. 79. This is repeated in numerous references over the past century, for example, Lorna Banfield, Like the Ark … A History of Ararat (Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire, 1955), p. 43.

references from his father and brother are telling. Though brief, neither betrayed excessive sentiment or bitterness about Tom’s relations with the local aborigines. Seventy years later, Horace, in one of the few reflections by any family member on Tom after his death, recalled Tom’s only child status as important in fostering friendships with local aborigines: ‘In his boyhood he was thrown much into the companionship of aborigines, having no boy friends of his own age … he became a thorough linguist in the native dialects’.513 While at Rugby Tom Wills requested that his family send him aboriginal weapons. This idyllic link between black and white finds its purest voice in an unpublished document written about 70 years ago, Blazing Australian Trails Pastoral and Sporting.514

In modern critiques, Wills is typically regarded as separate from suggestions of exploitation of the aboriginal team. However, Wills was to be paid for his part as player