THE FEILDING STAR Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER. 30, 1925 NEW ZEALANDERS IN AUSTRALIA.

Feilding Star, Volume 3, Issue 553, 30 December 1925, Page 4

THE FEILDING STAR Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER. 30, 1925 NEW ZEALANDERS IN AUSTRALIA.

. A commercial agent just now in New ■ Zealand - Jias been urging that New Zealanders and Australians should get into closer tou'eli each with the other, and he thought the Dunedin Exhibition would pave the way for closer commercial, industrial, and business relations. We think ilie All Whites just now touring the Commonwealth will do a whole lot, more than business men can do towards improving even trade relations, just as the All Blacks proved the best of publicity agents in Great Britain as well as in Australia. Who • are the All Whites? They are member’s of the/ New Zealand cricket team who have been doing so remarkably well that they have “astounded the natives-” on both sides of the -Tasman Sea.V Patrick and Co. were sent, over by the New Zealand Cricket Council, firstly, to- pay a courtesy call,, following upon tours of New Zealand by Australian, teams. Secondly, to become familiarised with Australian play and players and to pick up a few wrinkles. It is acknowledged that supremacy in cricket i: as natural io the Aussie as football is to tlie Maorilandor. But it has been explained, that Australians had to sit at the feet of Englishmen to learn to play cricket, and that even, then the Aussies in the old days could not. do anything effectively a'gainst the • English, “combines until champion howlers arrived. With- the coming of Spbffbilli, the demon howler, probably champion of champions, as a truiuller,» Australia reached out for apd eventually secured (die Ashes, the recovery of which is exercising the minds of English cricket circles so much toklay. New Zealand has been sitting at the feet of Australia,''learning to play cricket. 'Tne Australians have been very good, too, sending across team after team to help our men to bring out, the best that is in them.. Out- greatest fault and weakness'lla.s been that our batsiiion had not the courage of their practice. They were beaten before they began batting—overawed by ■Australian reputation. ' Therefore.: nothing very much better limn a series of severe defeats was expected when "Patrick and Co. mot the Todo u litanies face to fact. As if. to justify that estimate, our .All Whites' went flown before the. Queenslanders in their first game, played under sweltering conditions in Brisbane. But to the delighted astonishment of everybody the All Whites defeated two 'country teams in New .South Wales— Wagga and Gon lb urn. This is surprising, for everybody plays cricket rather well in the .Mother State, and

“any team” was considered to be the superior of anything New Zealand could. pn|. in. 'the field. 'Then crossing rover into yet a third State, the

New Zealanders met a combination- in Ballarat, and gave the latter what is called in the vernacular “the grandfather of a- hiding.” And they all play good cricket in Victoria, he it understood. Tlien came the 'crucial test. Patrick and Co. went On to Melbourne, where a formidable

Victorian team was pitted against them and New Zealand actually drew with a team that expected to deal out a one innings’ ’defeat! 'Surprise has simply I'olloWed surprise flaring the All White ioilr. this week oin; men have- been playing the strongest team South Australia Could put against them, including Such aspirants for British ; tour honours as Gnmmolt (himself a New Zenlan'der) and flie two Richardsons. ‘Pritchard and l»ymill are also Sheffield Shield players. ‘Even N.S.W. and Victoria’s howlers could'dot get V. Richardson and Co. out lor ‘351, 'the achievement- of ‘ the New Zealanders in. their first innings. And it also has to be considered that our men nre not acclimatised to the great heat prevailing over ’ there at this 1 time of the year. -Although their rivals “declared” in the second innings, in order to force the ishue for a Win within the three days, the New Zealanders had the grit and ability to make it a ■ draw. But the special feature of the gnme to rejoice over in the sixth' match, as in the oilier five games, is that we now have a team, of players 1 who ean and have fared the world’s best without succumbing ignominiously to either the clever howlers or that greater loe, the Demon Reputation. Well played, New Zealand!