“HERCULEAN TASK” Canterbury Target Is £6600 For Olympics

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30499, 22 July 1964, Page 19

“HERCULEAN TASK” Canterbury Target Is £6600 For Olympics

An appeal for funds to send the 10 Canterbury representatives in group B of the New Zealand Olympic team to Tokyo is to be started immediately by the Canterbury Amateur Sports Federation.

There are six hockey players, three rowers and a yachting reserve in group B from. Canterbury\ The total rises to 11 with the inclusion of Mr J. A. Mclnnes, who will be going to Tokyo as a wrestling judge.

The cost of sending each representative was £6OO, a total of £6600, the secretary of the federation (Mr G. Towart) said yesterday. .

It would be a “herculean task.” . The most that the federation had ever raised before was £2OOO for the Rome Olympic Games, he said.

There is a strong possibility, however, that the maximum target of £6600 may be reduced because of funds already raised by the New Zealand Hockey Association for its team. August Deadline

There is no time to lose for it is expected that the money will have to be available by the end of August, said Mr Towart.

A house-to-house appeal is

to be made on a Saturday in mid-August and business houses and professional men. are to be approached. The main problem anticipated by the federation is - to get sufficient collectors. Rowers in Doubt

Unless the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association can find £6OOO before August 28, the eight-oar rowing squad will be unable to go to Toyko, says an N.Z.P.A. message from Wellington. The squad is in Category B in the Olympic team, and the rowing association will have to pay full expenses, about £6OOO.

The . chairman of the N.Z.A.R.A. (Mr L. E. Brooker) said today about £2OOO had been raised to date. However, a portion of this would be used to pay part expenses for the four-oar crew.

He said the association would discuss schemes for raising the money. Auckland Set £ll,OOO

An estimated £ll,OOO would be needed to send the Auck-

land sportsmen in Category B to Tokyo, the secretary of the Auckland Amateur Sports Association (Mr A. Moon) said today. “We had hoped a house-to-house collection would- not be necessary but the 16 Aucklanders involved in Category B present us with a formidable financial hurdle,” he said.