The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1930. AN IMPERIAL ASSET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morn ing News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1930. AN IMPERIAL ASSET.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

In the last number of the "Empire Review" Mr. Prank Mitchell, a famous golfer, cricketer and footballer, has devoted an interesting article to the discussion of Rugby Football as "an Imperial Asset." As the title suggests, Mr. Mitchell, who is an enthusiastic devotee of the original Rugby game, is concerned largely with the influence exercised by athletic contests and tours in binding the Empire together, and he is thus led to consider at some length t,he question which is now' exercising our own Rugby organisation—the control of the game and the claims of the Dominions to a voice in its management.

It is good to have Mr. Mitchell's assurance that Rugby—by which he means the Union as distinct from the League game—has made immense strides in popularity at Home of recent years. "Whereas 30 years ago an International match would attract 6000 or so of spectators, now we see grounds holding 60,000 with the doors shut before the beginning of the match." So much money is the Rugby Union making that it is experiencing a pleasurable ■ embarrassment in finding legitimate outlets for its expenditure. On a big match d'ay Twickenham is as impressive a sight as Lord's when a University match.is in progress. "To see the crowd alone is a revelation. Certainly the game has got such a hold now that its popularity will never be challenged."

This is indeed a satisfactory state of things, and Mr. Mitchell attempts to analyse its causes. The chief reason for the present popularity of Rugby at Home he finds in the tours of colonial teams and the remarkable success that they have achieved. New. Zealand, New South Wales and South Africa have won 161 matches in England and lost only 16. Much of the rapid advance made by colonial players is, in Mr. Mitchell's opinion, due to the climate of the oversea Dominions and the healthy open-air life that the people lead. But whatever the cause, he frankly admits that Rugby was drifting deeper and deeper toward self-complacent failure when the advent of the first All Black team in 1905 w,akened British footballers from their lethargy. To-day the Rugby game, in Mr. Mitchell's opinion, 1 "owes much to New Zealand and South Africa,'" and he holds that it is high time for Britain to recognise her obligationto her oversea "cousins" and to-express it appropriately.

These considerations lead Mr.. Mitchell to discuss the management of Rugby football. At the present time there is an International Board, including representatives from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland —but no colonials. Mr. Mitchell holds that this defect should at once be remedied. He would abolish the International Board and substitute an Imperial Board. He is convinced that the time is ripe for this step, and he maintains that."the right of each of our Dominions to a seat on such a Board is evident." This claim Mr. Mitchell bases not only on the athletic prowess of the colonial players, but on the splendid part that the Dominions took in the great struggle when the existence of the , Empire was at stake. "There must be no more of this parish pump business," says Mr. Mitchell. England must take a broad view of the' whole situation, and to his mind the only possible conclusion is that the colonial unions "shall be admitted into such councils as may be formed on even terms." '

On this point Mr. Mitchell is particularly emphatic. The Dominions, he contends, should rank equally with any of the other unions in voting power. "Equal votes for members of the family of which England is the father and the mother" is his watchword, and he believes that this view, being held the great majority of Rugby enthusiasts at Home, must ultimately prevail. We hope that these generous and kindly sentiments will be duly appreciated in our own Rugby circle, where some anxiety and resentment have been aroused of late by an ill-judged suggestion from the International Board that, as a prelude to the establishment of a consultative body, including Dominion delegates, the colonial unions should bind themselves beforehand to accept the decisions of the Board as final. We are not surprised that the Management Committee of j the N.Z.R.U. this week resolved to reject this proposal, which would mean our continued subordination to the International Council. But we trust that the views so admirably set forth by Mr. Mitchell in the article from which we have quoted will eventually prevail, and that there will be no further need to force our just claims upon the reluctant British authorities.