PROFESSIONAL RUGBY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 33, 2 November 1907, Page 5

PROFESSIONAL RUGBY.

: PAY TOR LOST TIME. ' SCALE OF NEW SOUTH WALES LEAGUE: IIT TKLEORAriI—ITESS ASSOCIATION—COrTMCJtT. v . Gytlnsy, November 1. The Professional Rugby' League has adopted a code of ' laws,' ■■which'- will includti pay- , 'ment of playors at a rate not o;:cceding 10s. per dny for loss of time or aulary, with 7s. Gd.a day when playing outsido and ss. when playing inside his own State for personal ox- , psnocs. Provision is also made for payment of medical expenses and. £2. a wcok to an injured player while. he is incapacitated from following .bis usual,occupation.. Mr Hamish Shmrt con'.ributes tn tl-o "At.hletio News" an lirticle wbic'i is mbrkcil by his usual liostile attitude towards the New Zealand footballers and their method. 1 ?. He thinks that (■ho Now Zealand profofsionnl team may make tlio Homo Unions suspicious, and wreck tlo intended tour to New Zealand next yor.r. "It mny,"-lin writes, 'T>o tnkon for erantwl flint 'tlio Scottish nnd Insli Unions will fnrbid their ■players to tnkfi.pnrt in th; tour if tliey have hnv reason to ljalicvn that New /.enlnncl Knsby is in hny way. tainted by profosfionnlißm. Of tbo inniiiry 'into AVolnh nrofcssionnliem. lie writes- "Searching t>s the \\elsli inr|Uiry was, and drastic an the pttnis'.iment of tho puilty has been it is «till doubtful wlict.liei' Wales has vet scon or heard tho last of what must ovor'ba a source of trouble luid anxiety in n football 'community thiit iucliides .so' many 'worltine maii 1 players, 'ilin sincerity oi (lie Welsh Union is not disputed, for indivi(l,unlly and .collectively they are as opposed to professionalism in any .shape or lorni us the most ardent and uncompromising of the Scotch and Irish purists; but they have dilPciilties to contend with of which Scotland and Ireland know nothin"." Mr. Stiuirt prmJicts thnt m the nenv future amntfiur foolballors will play only Cugby, nnd that all Association players will be professionals. "This beinß so, 'it behoves the Unions to hold their eround without .faltering, and to wnpo relentless, merciless wnr against professionalism and all nets, however trifling, that suggest or snvour of tho snmo. it is for this reason that the projected tour to Now Zealand should he sacrificed,, .if there,is any reason to beliovo that a similar state of affairs prevails in New Zealand as tho Welsh inquiry revealed in tho Principality."