The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1925. THE JOURNEY WITHOUT DEFEAT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 January 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1925. THE JOURNEY WITHOUT DEFEAT.

Delivered every evening by G o’cloelc in Hawera Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawu, Eltham ilangatoki, Kaponga, Awatum, Opunake Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurley ville, Paten, Waverley, Mokoia, vvhakaiuara, Ohangai, Meremere, Prases Road, and Ararata.

In tlio whole history of international sport there have been lew happier gatherings than that which marked Britain’s honouring of the All Blacks at the Piccadilly Hotel on Wednesday. It has been contended, and with reason, that Rugby football occupies but a minor place in the public heart at Home. Then the overflowing enthusiasm of the farewell luncheon must be put down to something more than Rugby. England is the mother of .sport, and the two essential characteristics of the sportsman are, first, his ability to take defeat smilingly, and, secondly, his whole-hearted admiration of a victor’s achievement. Wednesday’s gathering represented British sportsmanship at its best. From the wicket and the soccer ground, from the boxing ring and the saddling paddock they came to toast “the journey without defeat” and “the record that beat the best.” And the manner in which they came could find no more apt expression than in the words of the Prince of Wales : “He hoped that when they returned home they would tell the people that the Old Country knew how to lose, but was going to do her best not to make! a habit of it.” That a New Zealand poet should have been on hand to sing the team’s record, in words than will live for ever along the touohlines back here at home, was the day’s crowning memory. The full-blooded action of Rugby runs through Mr. Pember Reeves’s first verse especially, and there is little doubt that the New Zealand Union’s most precious treasure henceforth will be the All Blacks Loving Cup. The cheering cablegram to Gilligan at Adelaide, and the hope expressed by v the New Zealanders’ manager that England might pull the game out of the fire, drew the whole Empire closer in the bonds of the playing field. And the Colonial Secretary’s toast, “The Land Where the All Blacks Grow,” served to show that underlying it all was something greater, and grander, and more abiding than the winning of matches or the taking of a beating. Mr. Amery saw not a team of footballers. He saw 29 stalwart men bred in the finest country on earth; and behind that he saw a new Britain on the far side of the world, a young nation following in the path of the old, building anew the traditions of fair play, honest speech, and just dealing upon which the Empire’s greatness, is set. International sport has taken a permanent place among those forces that link in one company people of all races an<! all tongues. It matters not that we have beaten England and France; what does matter is that our countries are better friends because of the games we have played.