“NOT OPTIMISTIC”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22570, 25 February 1948, Page 6

“NOT OPTIMISTIC”

SOUTH AFRICAN TOUR : TRANSPORT DIFFICULTY GREAT WELCOME WAITING (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 24. The fact that South Africa was not: entirely disappointed because the All Black Rugby tour was postponed from this year till next was mentioned to-i day by Mr. G. A. Maddison, one of. New Zealand’s delegates to the imperial Rugby conference, who returned by the Wahine. Mr. Maddison said the president of the South African Rugby Board, Mr. Pienaar, had told him that the South Africans were glad the tour had been postponed for a year as they did not think they would have been ready for the All Blacks this year. The whole of South Africa, however, was eagerly awaiting the tour next year and the itinerary had already been drafted. Mr. Maddison himself was not too optimistic about the tour. Transport difficulties were still being encountered, he said, and New Zealand might yet find that the problem of securing passages for the team would be insurmountable. The Australian delegates to the conference were anxious to have a Maori team visit the Commonwealth this year. They would be willing to send an Australian team to New Zealand next year when the New Zealand team was in South Africa.