ATHLETIC COUNCIL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1926, Page 2

ATHLETIC COUNCIL

QUESTION OF FINANCE

MUST STUDY FUTUBE WELFARE OF SPORT.

(By "Sprinter.") The council of the New Zealand Amateur -Athletic Association has como in for some criticism in connection with the lines it has followed to.meet the general desire that the New Zealand champion, E. A. Eose, should be sent abroad to meet the world's and other champions. It is evident that the council's position, particularly in regard to the money which it has at its disposal, some of it obtained from the tour of tho American athletes, is not clearly understood by those who may have fault to lind with the controlling body. It is estimated that the net pi-oiit of the American athletes' tour recently concluded will amount to about £1200 after the guarantees have been refunded and all expenses paid. Of that sum, 25 per cent. —i.e., £300 — will go to tho council. The remaining £i) 00 will be split up between the Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago A;A. Centres, and the Hawera A.A. Club and possibly the Gisbprne Club, which were treated as separate entities. Out of that £300 the council has to meet certain liabilities remaining over from the Australian tour last sjason which resulted-in a loss of £250. In all probability, when those liabilities are settled, the council will have remaining a sura of not more than £150. The only other income will be club fees £1 Is per clvb —and half the profits of the New Zealand championship meeting at Dunedin. "With these funds the council must meet, its ordinary administrative expenses in connection, with the contro.l of amateur athletics in .few Zealand, and it also lias a liability to face in tho near future in sending a New Zealand representative team to the. Australasian championships, which are to take place at Brisbane in August. The council opened the E. A. Eose Fund in response to insistent public pressure, evidenced by individual requests to the council and articles published in newspapers throughout New Zealand. In view 'of the fact that it is concerned with the general welfare of amateur athletics in New Zealand, the council would not be justified, no matter how worthy tho object, in bankrupting itself for the purpose of. sending any one athletic abroad. But even if it did devote the whole of its available moneys to that purpose it would not succeed in meeting a quarter of the cost of sending one mr ' on a tour such as that now in view. This fact should not be forgotten: that any shortage in the public response would, of necessity, have to be met by the council. Eose's tour abroad was not in immediate contemplation when" the American athletes arrived here. It was only by reason of the fact that Eose, as the result of Lloyd Hahn being brought here to. meet him, developed in a manner which made him—after his run at Masterton —a legitimate opponent for Nuvnii, that made the proposal to send the.New Zealander abroad a live matter; and it must also bo. remembered that the request to send Eoso abroad was a widely expressed public. '„ one throughout New Zealand. It is possible that the council .might have met tiro whole expense of Eoso's tour out of its own funds if it had made a special -charge for admission to the meetings at which Eose and the Americans appeared. But liotwithstanding that the public were seeing-- in action the greatest sprinter in the world to-day .and one of the world's best milers, the price of"' admission to the ground at all meetings throughout1 the'tour was; not greater than Is. ■;•; '•[ . .'''";'. ".*' The council, however, need 'not be discouraged' by little criticisms from time to time. The public response provides an effective answer.\ The £300 •or more collected to date in Wellington represents the contribution of a very large number of people, and the contribution from Taihape is particularly significant of the public feeling in this matter. It was at a sports meeting in a district .where amateur foot races have probabh' never been run that a gathering of some 3000 people responded _to tnc extent'of over £40 in.an hour tb an appeal made by Mr. W. Glenn, M.P., and. the president of the St. Patrick's Bay Sports Society. That appeal was made by those two enthusiasts of their own volition, as neither of them had been approached to make the appeal on behalf of the New Zealand Council. It may here bo stated that, although the council has not as yet voted.,any of its own funds towards sending Eose abroad, those members who comprise the council have between them made donations amounting to £15 15s. A suggestion has been made that the Olympic Council" should contribute to the fund. This, however, is not possible, as this body exists for the one special purpose of sending New Zealand representatives of all branches of amateur sport to the Olympic Games. It will bo faced two ;'ears hence with finding the wherewithal of dispatching probably Eose among others to the Olympic Games at Amsterdam.