PROFESSIONALISM A VEXED QUESTION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 19

PROFESSIONALISM A VEXED QUESTION

r THE reply to a letter sent by the chairman of the the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association’s council (Mr A. J. Donaldson) to the president of the body governing world amateur swimming and related sports (Mr B. Phillips) will be of more direct interest to people other than the correspondents.

The return mail and the receipt by the council of the minutes of a meeting of the Australian Surf LifeSaving Association could be the life-line for many New Zealand swimmers barred from competing in acquatic sports because they have been proclaimed professionals.

The same minutes, which prompted the recent correspondence (Mr Donaldson’s letter left New Zealand on December 7), state that as the result of “certain negotiations” with the Federation Internationale Natation Amateur, Mr Phillips obtained for the Australian Surf Life-Saving Association special dispensation so as

to enable surf life savers to contest all events—with the exception of declared professional swimmers who are not permitted to take part in surf races or surf teams’ races.

The minutes stated that these members, however, could take part in any event where surf life-saving equipment was used.

The F.LN.A. ruling that a person teaching swimming wholly or partly as a means of livelihood must become subject to a competitive bar has provoked considerable discussion and ill feeling for many years, but was thrown into its sharpest relief when the North Beach and New Zealand representative surfer, D. Dalton, became a declared professional swimmer as a teacher of swimming at his father’s private pool and appealed—with the full support of his club—against

the automatic disqualification from competition. What the future holds for Dalton and others contravening the amateur code is not clear cut.

The North Beach club, seizing on the Australian dispensation as a possible means of salvation for Dalton, persuaded Mr Donaldson to question Mr Phillips as to whether the same dispensation should apply in New Zealand and, as a follow-up, its delegate (Mr P. T. Goosey) moved, successfully, at last week’s meeting of the Canterbury Surf Life-saving Association that the association ask the national surf council to seek the dispensation that Australia enjoys. The New Zealand surf council, obviously, would approach the council of the swimming association for it is very much in its interests to do so: and without delay

as the tour of New Zealand next month by a team of Australian surfers, or subsequent tours, could present considerable embarrassment if the F.I.NA. law that amateur competitors competing with professionals automatically become “tainted” with professionalism should ever have to be invoked.

If the “special dispensation” is being applied in Australia, there must be the possibility that future tourists from Australia could include declared professional swimmers chosen to compete in events where surf life-saving equipment is used.

Dalton is merely a test piece in this issue which has only been given prominence by the refusal of Dalton, his family and the North Beach club to meekly accept the disqualification. Dalton will not compete in the surf again this summer, for the New Zealand surf council is not due to meet again till March and its management committee, which meets fortnightly, is not authorised to determine policy.

Whatever the theme of Mr Phillips’s letter, the decision of whether paid swimming teachers are to remain on a lower rung of the professional ladder than paid beach patrolmen who are able to compete as amateurs 90 days after ceasing their duties, can be made only by the New Zealand Swimming Association, to which the surf association is affiliated.

The provision of the 90day term of absolution for men whose proficiency in the surf is devoted to saving life should set a sufficient precedent for the granting of similar concessions to those who teach swimming.