MAORI FOOTBALL TOOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1926, Page 8

MAORI FOOTBALL TOOR.

From the dawn of the Rugby game iv the Dominion, piayers 01 the native race nave taken a Riga place in the game; one very tirst .New Zealand team which visited Britain in 1888 was a native team which set a high playing standard ior the Maori to live up to; and to the nresent day the Maori has had titsrepresentatives iv the interprovincial and international teams. Consequently, the impending visit of a Maori team of Rugby players to England and France is viewed by the people of New Zealand without the slightest misgiving that the Rugby prestige of New Zealand, highly as it has been ranked through the deeds of the 1905 and 1924 All Blacks' will not be maintained. Consideration of character as well as of Held prowess has been a policy rigidly set down in the selection of New Zealand representative teams for overseas, and it is not surprising to hear from Mr. \V. T. Parata that this policy is being rigidly adhered to by those responsible for the choice of the 1926 Maori team to tour France. For the past twenty years Mr. Parata has been an enthusiastic and successful apostle of the best Rugby traditions among the Maoris, and he is primarily responsible for the present venture, having several able coadjutors, notably Mr. A. Takarangi in tiic North Island and Mr. W. J. Stead in the South, lSoth of them players, of great repute. Through their endeavours a Maori Advisory Board was instituted, and the Rugby morale of Maori players has been preserved and strengthened by the periodic selection oi a Maori representative team to visit Australia, and by the institution of an annual North v. South Maori match. Proof of success in strengthening the .ame's grip on the native race is supplied by the fact that four Maori teams have visited Australia in the last sixteen years, and of 34 matches played the> have lost only a dozen, and those only to international sides, by narrow marsins. In 1922 the Maori team played three matches against New South Wales, and won the rubber. At times the*« teams have made short tours of the Dominion, losing only to the very strongest provinces. Further, a number of players from these teams have played for New Zealand—three of them were with the 1924 All Blacks in England. So the Rugby prestige of New Zea land is safe in the hands of the Maori team. The style of play adopted by them is characteristic, being famous for its sparkling and unorthodox 1 - methods, while it is a very rare thing for any reproach in rejzard to sportsmanship to attach to a Maori player. New Zealand may wish the Maori team "Kia Ora" with an easy mind.