FEELING TOWARDS MAORIS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 September 1921, Page 5

FEELING TOWARDS MAORIS

CABLE MESSAGE REPUDIATED

WELLINGTON, Sep. 15. Mr Bennett, manager for the Springboks, repudiates the cable to South Africa, which, he says, was sent without the knowledge of him or the team. The author was a newspaper correspondent, who bad since expressed re-1 gretfor his action and had explained that it'had been written, in the heat of the moment; also that he was sorry tor his action almost as soon as he had placed the message on the wires. The Springboks were entirely blameless, and the message conveys an altogether false impression of the match. They were all very much hurt, because the Maoris had been particularly hospitable to them. They were certainly not guilty of any flirty play. On behalf ot his men he wished to give the report an unqualified denial. Mr Bennett added that he was advised by cable that the South African papers had not published the message. He suggested that there was a leakage somewhere and that it was being investigated by the Government.