LEAGUE RULES

\ (By "Full-back.") - No senior match, last Saturday, and not very much happening locally this ".Saturday. League affairs are beginning to slacken; but there will be a great revival when the New South Wales people como here on the 13th. Wellington will probably' suffer defeat, but they should* make' a goad fight for it, for, especially among tho backs, they approximate more closely to the New South Wales and ideal League style than other provinces. In any case, the match should be a good one. The history of a peculiar dispute in a school-boys' competition is related by the Sun: — A match was played tho other afternoon, and five minutes before the interval arrived the captain of the side, -sent one of his team off the field and called another boy on because he did not think the lad had been shaping aa he should. First of all he asked the referee if he could do it, .and was told that it was all right. The opposing side had no objection, as they were leading by six points to nil at the time, and looked upon the match as a cinch. In tho second half the school which had brought on the ' new player scored two tries and converted one -to nil, winning the game by 8 points to 6. Then tho ructions began, and there Was almost a battle royal. Tho side which lost has protested, and no matter which way it g_oes there is sure to bo trouble. In the hrst place, the captain of the winning side cannot be blamed for bringing on a better player when he bad the sanction of the referee and his opponents, and, on the other hand, the losing side, having had time for reflection, can see the mistake they made. Personally, I think that the match should be allowed to stand, as nothing would have been said if the game had been won by the eido ■which ib now objecting. Of course, such a. thing could happen only in a schoolboy match. Ono of the many questions always cropping up ia "Who was tho first man to sign, on for the League?" As luck would have it, the other night several wellknown footballers, a keen enthusiast, and the writer (Claude Corbott, in tho Sun) happened to meet outside a theatre between the acts. Of course, football was talked, and the enthusiast remarked incidentally that he bad been in the League movement since its inception. A standing joke in inside League circles is one concerning the number of men who claim to have been connected with the Northern Union game in Australia from the start, when those who were really there can recollect the workera and outside supporters being practically counted on the fingers. However, the claim of tho gentleman referred to in this paragraph is absolutely genuine. "I'll tell you beyond all doubt who was the first man in Australia to sign a form to play League football," he said. "It was Frank Cheadle, who at tho time was connected with the Newtown Union Club. There is no disputing that, as I was tho man who had charge of the matter. I brought the paper to Cheadle. Any other claims in that direction are bogus, and I pan produce indisputable evidence to prove that my statement ia potMpfc*"-