TO REMAIN IN ENGLAND

Evening Star, Issue 22087, 22 July 1935, Page 12

TO REMAIN IN ENGLAND

ALL BLACK TO TAKE MILITARY COURSE J. R. Page, of Wellington, one of the' five-eighths selected to tour Great Britain and Ireland with the 1935 AH Blacks, will not return to New Zealand with the team. He will remain in England to _ further his military studies in a special course of subjects. Permission was obtained from the Rugby authorities for this v purpose (says the ‘Sporting Life’). Page, who holds the rank of captain in the permanent forces, is officer in charge of the Fort Dorset Battery, Wellington,- where the permanent artillery is garrisoned, and is a popular officer. This will not be his first trip to England, for shortly after taking up the_ army as a profession Page won a military scholarship which entitled him to two years’ training in the military depots in the Old Country, (He had his training at Sandhurst.) Apparently it is the policy of the Defence Department to keep its officers abreast 'of the/latest 'training methods adopted by the Imperial Army, and it is understood' that it was the intention of the authorities to send two New Zealand officers Home this year for instruction in special courses of modern military training. It was on the occasion of his last visit to England that Page received his first introduction to big football. He played for London Scottish, and was reserve back for Scotland in an international.? On his return to New Zealand he was drafted into the forces at Trenfcham, and joined up with the Wellington (Rugby Union) Football Club, to play behind his old Southland associate and schoolmate, Frank Kilby. Page will take the course in. England immediately the All Black tour concludes in early January, andr expects to be back in New Zealand before the end of next year.