CHARGE RESENTED

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 123, 27 May 1930, Page 11

CHARGE RESENTED

• INTERPRETATION OF RULES

. \ (By Telegraph.) (Specif to "The Evening Post.")

- AUCKLAND; This Day. In an.- editorial on "Rugby Rules/ today's "Star" states:— ' .-.■•. ■ "The saying that 'Speech, is silver but silence is golden' is never more valuable than in contact between travellers and communities new to them. In all menulinesa we commend it to the attention ot the manager of the British football team. No doubt when Mr. Baxter said that the ordinary wing-forward deliberately cheated he did not realise' how deeply these words might wound. He did not realise that ■New Zealanders are accustomed to think ot a player as well as the position, that thousands o£ followers of the game know them as thoroughly 'clean' players, and naturally resent the charge of cheating. Mr. Baxter confuses the rule and the interpretation of it. ' He is entitled to contend, that the rules are wrong in allowing wing-forwards to play, but he is certainly not entitled to gay that wing-forwards as a class set. out to beat the referee. ' "As for the other points insisted on by our visitors it will occur to New Zealanders that there is extraordinarily little reciprocity in international contacts. New Zealand visits Britain and South, Africa and there conforms to local rules and usage, but Britain sends a team here and New Zealand is expected, to give way. There may be justification for the objection to'the second ball on. the field, but the rules.about referees being sole timekeepers and teams not leaving'the field in the interval seem to be silly. Certainly no reasons have been given for them. In the name of common-sense why .should the referee in a big match be worried ■with timekeeping when there are others who could do this for him? It is necessary to say these things, but we hope and believe that such differences are not going to spoil the enjoyment o£ the matches or detract from the benefits accruing ■ from the tour. It is because we: wish for the test that we suggest to our visitors that in their utterances they should be a little more sympathetic towards the local point of view. We are delighted to have them with us, but guests should not be too eager to set their hosts' house in order."