ATHLETIC TOURS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 224, 18 June 1929, Page 3

ATHLETIC TOURS

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA SEASON AFTER NEXT—PERHAPS? No final discussion has been arrived at in the matter of regular athletic meetings between Australia and New Zealand. Mr. H. I. Austad, chairman of the council of the New Zealand. Amateur Athletic Association, who returned to Wellington by the Maunganui yesterday, said that while in Sydney he had a conference with the executive of the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia, and that body was now prepared to undertake visits subject to certain financial considerations. The big difficulty in Australia was finance. Sydney had so many counter-attractions that the amateur athletic “gates” seemed to suffer, and the sport generally did not get anything like the public support that it did here in Wellington. The Amateur Athletic Union of Australia, said Mr. Austad, was keen for a New Zealand representative team to visit Australia in 1930, and to take part in an Australia-New Zealand test immediately following the Australian championship. In view of the Canadian tour to New Zealand it was most improbable that the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Council would send a team to Australia during the coming season, but the tour might eventuate during the 1930-31 season. ’ The terms for the tour and the events were the subject of a report which he would, be submitting to-the council of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association.