FOOTBALL.

Evening Star, Issue 14965, 27 August 1912, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

THE I}iYEROAItGI]LL HOTB& TROUBLE.

At the request of the Ota«o Rugby Union the committee of the Southland Rugby Union last evening held an inquiry injo the circumstances surrounding the disturbance in the Railway Hotel on the night of the Otago v. Southland representative fixture. Mr J. T. LUlburne occupied the chair. The first witness called (reports the 'Southland Times') was James Darragh, a boarder in the establishment and a member of the Southland team. Asked what he knew about what actually occurred in the hotel on the night in question, the witness said that all he knew was that he left the competitions after the conclusion of th'e last entertainment and went tfl the hotel with Mr Cowie. He (witness) eaiu he was going to bed, and Cowio asked him to call him in the morning. After being in bed a little while he heard laughter and talking in the passage. He had been in bed for some little time, when he heard the handle of his door turned. He th&ght it was one of the Otago men who Hs&l the other bed in his room, but he was not in at that time. The man at the door came in and picked up the mattress, but witness spoke to him and he dropped the bed and cleared out. The occupant of the other bed in the room came in about 12.50 o'clock, and he told witnes6 that nearly every bed in the house had been interfered with. The bed was. still on the floor when he came in. Two or three men came into the room and. talked about the occurrence. Graham was one of them, but he came early in the morning. They seemed sober enough. The witness couid not eay anything as to who the culprits were. He did not pay much, attention when the men. were talking in the passage, but he heard that it wae supposed to be Graham. The room was dark, and he culd not tee very clearly, but it seemed that he had a dark coat. The witness said that he would not like to say that the man who came into the room was an Otago man; he did net recognise him as a local man. He did not notice anything unusual at the time when he was going to bed. Mr Greig: Do you know, anything about Graham's whereabout* in the early part of the evening? Witness: He told me he was out at the Junction. Witness was asked whether he heard any of the Otago men blame the Southland men for the disturbance before they went away. He replitd that Graham had said that some people in the hotel had been responsible for it. Mr W. Buchanan, proprietor of the Railway Hotel, said that, as far as he could remember, the first he heard of the trouble was between 10 aid 11 o'clock. He had be«n speaking to two gentlemen, and shortly p.m. lie went, ag was his habit, to the, Por-.t Office. As he went out lie <-aw a mattress on the footpath, which had apparently been dropped out of an uptahs window. He picked it up and placed it behind tiie door, and then went to the Post Office. When he came back Ihe mattress was nowhere to be found. The told him that someone had keen „'oii;g round*the rooms, taking the jnattiesses off the beds and pouring water over ;hem. Li 6ix or seven looms they had piicd the mattresses in the centra of the Hour, and in one room, where an old gemkman was in bed, the offenders had taken his candle and matches awav, and poured <=Oi.« liquid on the mat. The rooms interfered wii.ii, in nearly every case, were occupied by boarders. The beds' were turned all topsy-tuivy and satu> rated with water, tut. ihc., f beds in the rooms occupied by the 1 out-ballers were only sprinkled. The witness waited up for the return of the manager of the Otago team, and he came in about 1.30 a.m. Witness at once told him about the occurrence, and suggested that, members of the Otago team were responsible. Ilia manager became nasty, and said: " How 4a you know it was not some of your ow& men?" Witness was wild at the time, and did not remember what lie said in reply. The language used later in the night wa* " frightful," but he could not eay who used" the language. The captain and the manager of the team tried to find out who was responsible, and he did not get them to ted until 3:30 a.m. He only knew the captain, manager, and Mx M'Kellar, and he did not know who the _ men who It ft the commercial room about 10.30. He heard them go upstairs. Graham was not in the house.at the time, to witness's knowledge, nor wa<i he among those who went out of the commercial loom. Theis was. considerable disturbance about 1.30 in a room behind Mr Lindsay's. The bad language mentioned came from No. 1 room on "the" first floor. _ . In answer to a question by the chaixman, Mr Buchanan said that two of the Otago men had obviously been, indulging in liquor. Joseph Mats, a boarder in £he establishment, said that Ins room had been the worst treated. He was in the commercial room until shortly after 11 p.m. There were five or six Otago footballers present while he was there. He could not name the men, but could identify them if he saw them.. They left the commercial room about 10.30. W. Lindsay, also a 'boaTder in the establishment, and* a Southland rep. footballer, gave evidence that he and his wife occupied a room in the hotel. His wife retired some time before him, and he went up about 9.30 p.m. The door -watflocked, but his wife let him in. She mentioned that she thought something was going on, but he told hej it im imagination, fhen she told him that she had heard Graham's name called out about 8.45. There was no noise at 9.30. but the row started between 11.30 p.m. and midnight. He thought they were trying to pull the hotel down, and that it was time to get up. The captain and the manager wore quartered in the room next to him, where the swearing and row were going on. He twice went to the door to remonstrate with t&em, on the second occasion calling out : " Be careful, boys, there are ladies in the house." Witness also gave evidence corroborative of that of the previous witness. Evidence was given by Mr I. Jenkins, who also stayed in the hotel during the night, and his evidence went to ehow that the disturbance,kfok place after 11 o'clock. The evidence of another witness was taken in committee, witness declining to make a statement for publication. Written evidence wt.s tendered by Mrs W. G. Lindsav and Mr N. Cowie.

At the conclusion of the hearing Mr Lillbnrne pointed out that it was not for the Southland Union to come to ajinding, but he would *ugg«.t.t. th-t as four members of the Otasjo' team had left the commercial room about 10.iO. it was*-for the Otago Union to find out their movements between 10.50 and 11.15 p.m. He ako pointed out that Mr evidenceshowed that the disturbance occurred somewhere about this time. T*hk BUggeetion was affirmed by the meeting. The Q.R.F.U. wili come to a decision on the matter to-night. OTAGO'S TOURING TEAM. Mr Gavanach. will act fs sole selector while the represents ti\ s team are on tour. The team will choose their own captain (probably, Sheehan) and vice-captain. They leave for the North by the firet express to-morrow, playing South Canter.bury at Timarii 'later In the day. INTERSTATE RUGBY. Press ABEOciaiion—By Telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, August 27. (Received August 27, at 10 sum.) The New South W..l;<s Rugby Union team defeated Victoria in the second game by 10 points to 3. OTAGO JUNIORS v. NORTH OTAGO. The following junior representative team will represent Otago agamd. Noi"th Otago at Oamaru on Thursday:—Deuchrass, Withers. S. Robinson, Wilson, M'Hardy (captain), Wylie, Baxter ('Varsity), Clark, Booth, Mitchell, Walker, M'Laren, Morrison, Berwick, Brown; emergencies—• Whitty, Robertson, Carnegie, 'ine team will attend training at Cansbtook at 7j,39 to-night.