PAYMENT OF FOOTBALLERS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13108, 6 May 1908, Page 7

PAYMENT OF FOOTBALLERS.

THE -PROFESSIONAL QUESTION. • The question of recompensing representative footballers for timo lost while on tour was discussed by the management .committee of the Canterbury llugby Union- last evening, when considering the order paper whrich. is to bo presented at the ooufcTenoe of deleiCattvs u> be hold in Wellington this month.

.Mr S. F. Wilson opened tho dascusJ sion by stating that in his opinion representative footballers who lost their wages should be paid for time lost. In reply to a question, be said that only those players whose wages were stopped "when they left off work should be paid. The chairman (Mr G. H. Mason) said that in that case they were dealI ing rather hardly with the clerk, eaid I he would like to draw attention to this I aspect of the matter. The clerk was j given a fortnight's holiday in the year j for the extra work given, and tho i wages he. received during that period did iiot perhaps compensate him for tho extra time he had put in. The I workman got paid for his overtime, and if' lie took a week's holiday he wu.s more than paid by that overtime. This was a matter that had to be very seriously considered; otherwise they wore inflicting l - a severe hardship on tho team. Personally, "lie had aiot gone beyond this point into tho matter. j .Mr "Wilson eaid that the question of payment was a very vexed one indeed. The man who receiving liis wages and 10b a day abovo his wages was a professional without a doubt. The man who losr. his time and was pedd for it ivas not a professional in tho broad <&ensa of the term. The Chairman : It is a question of the thin line between a cash amateur and a professional. Mr J. Walton said thai ho "was totally opposed to Mr Wilson's point of ■view. This question, witihout doubt, was of most momentous importance to foot bailers in Zealand. They got a man to sacrifice his work for a day or two, and it was contended that Ukj local union or the New Zealand Union should pay him for that time. Ho considered that was an absolute mistake, as, when they did that, they wero opening the door to proiessnoaialism. He hoped delegates at the conference would raise their voice with no uncertain sound against the proposal. He would be agreeable to it if ii' only went as far as paying out-of-pocket expenses, but it would, not stop at that. The question would 1 •bo stretched, multiplied, and extended to any degree. Mr Wilson said that he did not believe in professionalism at all. Ho had been on the Canterbury Union Selection Committee for three years, and last year that Union sent a team on a twelve days' tour of the West Coast. The whole- of the players were working men, and some of them had their homes to keep up. Just after that a team was cent on an eight days' tour in the South, and they experienced great difficulty in getting this team together. The men who refused to play said they could not afford it, and he did not think they could. When a man had represented tho Province and been at tho top of the tree for some time, the novelty had disappeared, and he could not afford to give his time to the game. In order to test the feeling of delegates ho moved that the dolegates to the conference in Wellington bo instructed to support the proposal of payment of representative players for time lost.

The Chairman mentioned that the matter might not come up, but Mr Wilson pointed out that it might be a recommendation to the English Union. In reply to a question by Mr J. R. Evans,, the Chairman . eaid that the Northern Union separated from tho English- Union over .'the - very same question. ,

Mr, Matthews seconded '-the motion, but it was lost by 7 votes to 3.