DOMINION OARSMEN STATUS IN AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 3

DOMINION OARSMEN STATUS IN AUSTRALIA

INTER-STATE COMPETITIONS. A cable was published in Wednesday's issue announcing that the question as to whether New Zealand oartmon are amateurs according to the New South Wales definition has been revived in Sydney. The message stated that the Tasmanian Rowing Association had asked the New South Wales Association to support its application that a New Zealand oarsman bo allowed to row in the Tasmanian t,rew at the forthcoming championship in Victoria, and that it was understood that the New South Wales Executive ( had replied to the effect that each com- ' petitor must sign the necessary declaration set out by the Inter-State Conference. The matter was referred by a Poet representative yesterday pfternoon to Mr. Albert E. Nash, cbai-man of the New South Wales Rowing Association, who is at present on a visit to Wellington. Mr. Nash explained that under the conditions that exist in Australia at the present time it would be impossible for any New Zealand oarsman to take part in any event, from' en inter-State standpoint, for the reason that a clause existed which debarred any New Zealand oarsman from competing. "The clause," he 1 said, "provides that any man who is connected in or about boats for money or wages is debarred from competing in any event. This applies to everybody, so no invidious distinctions are made. Under the conditions that exist a New Zealand oarsman can leave the Dominion, and if he can sign a statutory declaration, according to the rides of the New South Wales Rowing Association, that he has not, in the feport in which he is ■ interested, directly or indirectly participated in any money prize, and in addition has not been associated with any other branch of sport for a money prize his case will be considered, and he will receive the advantage of reinstatement. In every case where these conditions have been complied with the applicants have been reinstated, as amateurs according to the definition that exists there. The fact of an oarsman being a reinstated man from a State standpoint would debar him from rowing for hLs State in the inter-State races that take place annually." Mr. Nash added that any reinstated man can row in any race which is not an inter-State race.