RUGBY REFEREES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 77, 1 April 1914, Page 11

RUGBY REFEREES

ASSOCIATION AND APPOINTMENT BOARD GRIEVANCES VENTILATED. The annual mpeting of the Wellington Rugby Referees' Association, held last evening in the V.M.C.A. rooms, was at-" tended by twenty-two membeis or pros* pective membeis. Mr. D. M'Kenzie presided. When the annual report and balancesheet (a summary of which was published in Saturday's Post) came up for discussion, Mr. A. C. Kitto stated that he was surprised at the remarks made in the report regarding the future of the association, but he hoped that in future the Management Committee and the association would endeavour to puJl together. Mr. Ingram congratulated the association on the report that had been presented, and suggested that possibly a more amicable state of affairs would pertain if the ftugby authorities were made members of the association. Mr. D. Weir explained that in dealing with the appointments of senior referees it was not the chairman of the union, but the Appointment Board, which had to make the appointments. The board had to study the players and also the association, and the committee wished to do all it could for the association. He hoped that both the association and the board would pull well together. It iyujst be remembered that the board had no friends, and always did its best to give every man a fair deal. All that \vas necessary was that a club should bring forward a man, and the association wouki see that he got a chance.i The Chairman stated that primarily he was responsible for the report presented. He had written it, believing it to be a statement of facts. The statement had been made that the association had been snubbed, and such was the case, for it had been told by the Management Committee that the committee could not interfere with the action of the Appointment Board. The association would not be satisfied until it got back the appointment of referees in its own hands. There had never been any friction until the Appointment Board came' on the scene.. At the meeting of the Rugby Union the previous evening it had been stated that as long as there was a Referees' Association there would always be trouble, but he said deliberately that the association was not going to progress as long as it was not allowed to make its own appointments. The association was .allowed to control the rules of Rugby, but it had practically no say in appointing its own members as senior referees. The whole business seemed a farce on the face of it. The association claimed that if there were a grievance against a referee, a sub-committee should have a chance to examine him. The position at present was that if a member of the Appointment Board went to the board and said his club did not want a certain referee he was not allowed to act as a referee in any match that particular club was concerned in. It was unfair that a club should say any man was not fit to referee, and the only solution for getting rid of the present friction was to leave the appointment of referees entirely in the association's own hands. ■ The report , and balance-sheet were adopted. The election of officers and committees resulted as follows :— President, Mr. F. A. Laws; vice-presidents, Messrs. "S. Brown and A. Campbell; chairman, Mr. D. M'Kenzie; vice-chairman, Mr. L. Simpson; secretary and treasurer, Mr. L. Sievers ; instruction (also classification) committee, Messrs. W. Francis, 'R. Evison, and R.«Fordyce; vice-president New Zealand Referees' Association, Mr. JL. Simpson ; delegate New Zealand Referees' Association, 'Mr. D. "M'Kenzie ; auditor, Mr. J. O'Sullivan; representative on Appointment Board, Mr. L. Sievers. On the motion of Mr. Taylor, it was decided that it be a recommendation to the Classification Committee that any member who had failed to qualify as a senior referee should be informed as to the particular point on which he had failed. Three new members present "Were elected.