MAORI LEAGUE BOARD FORMED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 18

MAORI LEAGUE BOARD FORMED

A former Canterbury Rugby league representative, Mr R. T. Pomare, was last evening elected chairman of a committee designed to form the first Maori advisory board in the province.

The secretary, Mr G. R. T. Tuaine, was instructed to write to the 12 clubs ip Canterbury. asking them to nominate a delegate or representative for the board. Mr B. N. Towart said that members of the New Zealand Maori Advisory Board in Auckland were concerned that Canterbury did not have a similar body. The Waikato board had been reformed in 1966 and Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Northland had followed suit this season. The aims of the board would be the promotion of Maori Rugby league in all grades, the restoration of the annual Maori v. Pakeha match as a major fixture, a. possible challenge for the Waitangi Shield (at present held by Auckland Maoris) and representation on the Canterbury board of control. Because the national Maori body had little contact with southern leagues, its selectors had been forced to confine New Zealand Maori team selections to Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki, Mr Towart said.

An active Maori board in Canterbury could nominate leading players for such fixtures. Mr Pomare, a prop with the Hornby club and a South Island trialist, and Mr Tuaine, a senior player for more than a decade with Papanui and Marist-Western Suburbs, were nominated as selectors for the Canterbury Maoris first game this season, against the ExKiwis on July 21. Other committee members elected were Messrs H. Pitima, J. K. Keremeta, W Matthews, R. Pitima and P. H. Nepia.