GATE-TAKINGS OF TOUR

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28697, 22 September 1958, Page 13

GATE-TAKINGS OF TOUR

Net Profit More Than £12,000

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 21.

. Gate-takings for the Wallabies’ tour of New Zealand will be the greatest in the history of Australian teams visiting New Zealand, according to the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union Council (Mr C. S. Hogg). Speaking at the test match dinner to the two teams last night, Mr Hogg said that although tour costs were now higher than in 1955, at the time of the last Wallabies’ visit, the net tour profit was expected to exceed the £12,000 then credited to the union.

Both Mr Hogg and Mr D. S. B. Heather, the president of the union, praised the play of the visitors and each emphasised the popularity won by the team. It had been the happiest of tours. Mr Heather said.

Mr C. W. Blunt, the manager, and Dr. -C. Wilson, the captain, told the gathering that from the Australian point of view the tour had been an outstanding success. Mr Blunt praised the New Zealand refereeing standards, which

he considered to be extremely high, and said that members of the team would think of the seven weeks of the tour as the greatest experience of their lives.

A particular tribute was paid by Mr Blunt to the team’s masseur, M. T. Davies. “The Little Welsh wizard” had been, he said, the greatest companion the team could have had.

Irishmen for Himalayas.—Two members of the Irish Mountaineering Club will lead a climbing expedition to the Himalayas in the East Punjab this summer. Grants towards the eost of the expedition have been made by the Irish Mountaineering Club and the Mount Everest Fund.