The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1938. CENTENNIAL GAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1938. CENTENNIAL GAMES.

/br tfce cause that iackm aaeietonm, For the wrong that need* ruitUmee, For the future i» the distance, And the food that we «•» do.

In less than twenty months New Zealand will enter upon its Centennial year. Preparations for the celebration of that great event are considerably advanced, and they have been distinguished and helped, so far, by the spirit of co-operation between the Government and the local committees, and between the local committees. It is therefore al 1 the more regrettable that a conflict of interests has arisen between Auckland and Wellington concerning the organisation of the Centennial Games. These, wherever held, will be an important and indispensable part of the programme of events which is being prepared for the enjoyment both of New Zealanders and of the host of visitors which it is hoped will come from abroad in 1940. The sports bodies of the Dominion intend that the important part which outdoor games of. all kinds have played in the lives of the people throughout the years shall be adequately represented, and in Auckland there has been conceived the idea of holding the greatest sports carnival in New Zealand's history. Soon after this was announced a meeting was held in Wellington of representatives of national and Wellington sports bodies, and an organisation was set up to hold a sports carnival, apparently exactly similar, in the capital city.

It will be clear to anyone that t\ro national sports carnivals cannot be held in New Zealand in the one year and both be successful. The more likely result will be the failure of both. The Auckland plan, sponsored by the Centennial Council, is to model the carnival on the Empire Games and to endeavour to secure the attendance and competition not only of the best of New Zealand's athletes, but of representative teams from Australia and farther afield. In view of the faet that the next Olympiad is to be held in 1940, there might seem little prospect of attracting overseas athletes to New Zealand, but it is by no means certain that teams from British and some other countries will participate in the Olympiad if it is held in Japan. This has suggested the possibility, mentioned by the president of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, that such countries could be persuaded to send teams to the Dominion, and the association has already decided to write to England, South Africa, Canada and Australia and inquire whether they would entertain the idea. The need to settle the dispute about the location of the Games is therefore the greater, for if two similar invitations from rival bodies were sent abroad neither would be regarded seriously.

The foremost event of 1940, the Centennial Exhibition, ie by common consent to be held in Wellington, which wiM necessarily be the centre also of some of the official celebrations of a national character. Bat there must be the strongest opposition to any tendency to make Wellington the centre of every celebration except the local ones. As was pointed out this week by the secretaries of the Auckland Centennial Council, for similar reasons to that which makes the holding of only one exhibition practicable and desirable, there can be only one Centennial Games gathering, and Auckland should have it. This is a matter in which Auckland sports clubs of all kinds should interest themselves. There hag been formed in Wellington .a committee representative of each of the organisations which proposes to hold its national championships in Wellington in 1939. The executives of those organisations are responsible no less to Wellington fchan to Auckland, and Auckland branches should make it clear that no arrangement made will have their consent until the question of the locality of the Games has been settled.