FOOTBALL

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4593, 19 May 1922, Page 4

FOOTBALL

RUGBY v. LEAGUE CODE. SYDNEY PAPER COMMENTS. ON N.Z. CONTROVERSY. (By Electric Cable—Copyright.) (Aust. anfJ *J,Z. Cable Association.) Sydney, May 18. The Sydney Sun, under the heading, "Maori War," states: "A bitter fight, unseemly and altogether obnoxious to decent people, is proceeding in New Zealand over the proposed visit of a team of Maoris to Sydney to play a series of Rugby League matches." The paper continues th.it the League in New Zealand is not so strong a body as here, but it is progressing. The Union, on the other hand, has solid support, and a mole solid banking account, but it resents the intrusion of the thirteen aside code. The result is that bitter war is being waged between the two bodies. If it were kept in New Zealand it would not matter, but it is spreading here. After referring to a cable received in Sydney giving Mr Parata's reports to the New Zealand Rugby Union, in which he states that the League code is not meeting vith much success in the main North Island districts, the naper states that tho bitterness with which the fight is being waged is obvious from tho message, but Sydney is not perturbed. The New South Wales secretary states that ho has information that more Maoris than aro wanted arc desirous of making the trip. "Be this as it may," concludes the article, 'this uns'eemly quarrel between tho two codes in New Zealand is having a bad effect on the game. Fortunately, the same bitterness has not been displayed hore."