Rugby Investigation Almost Completed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31365, 10 May 1967, Page 21

Rugby Investigation Almost Completed

**Th« Pr«a«** Special Service

WELLINGTON. The New Zealand Rugby Football Union has almost completed the mammoth task of tracing all of its surviving international representatives in preparation for what will be the greatest sporting reunion ever held in the Dominion.

This will be the function on August 19 next to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the N.Z.R.F.U. A special test match between New Zealand and Australia will be held at Athletic park and the anniversary dinner, to which all former and current representatives will be invited, will be held that evening. Outlining the progress on the “detection” work, the union’s secretary, Mr O. H. Geddes, said yesterday that he had received “amazing” co-operation from the 28 constituent unions. “We prepared a list of all former representatives, national administrators and international referees and sent

It to all unions," he said. “We asked them to supply addresses where we did not have them.” In two months the lists have been returned with almost 370 of the 380-odd addresses required now supplied. “This must have been a tremendous job for the unions but they responded terrifically,” added Mr Geddes. The oldest surviving players are those three “greats” from the 1905 team—W. J. Wallace (Wellington), H. L. Abbott (Palmerston North), and G. Nicholson (Auckland) —and it is hoped that all three will be able to attend the anniversary functions. Mr Geddes said that he would shortly be sending out another list to all unions of the dozen or so players that had not so far been traced in

a special attempt to fill the gaps.

“It is possible that some of them have died and we have missed seeing their obituaries," he said. OLDEST AT 89

At 89, Mr Wallace is the oldest on the list, and the oldest administrator is probably Mr W. Perry, of Wellington, who served on the union’s council in 1914. Mr S. S. Dean is the earliest surviving president, having held that office in 1931, while Mr Geddes himself is the only surviving secretary.

Some 20 international referees are on the list, one of whom, Mr E. W. Tindill, was also an international representative. Mr Geddes’s next task is to issue invitations to all concerned to attend the dinner, at which the Australian party will also be guests.

Already rooms in nine hotels have been booked and Mr Geddes said that every effort would be made to have members of the same New Zealand teams in the same hotels.

A special history of the New Zealand union—as distinct from his volumes on the history of the game in New Zealand—has been written by the union’s official historian, Mr A. C. Swan.