RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LII, Issue 4797, 18 August 1932, Page 2

RUGBY FOOTBALL.

BENEFIT MATCHES

RUGBY COUNCIL’S INTEREST

SHOWN.

The scheme for running' a series of football matches in aid of unemployment relief was advanced a further stage on Tuesday night, when the Horowhenua Rugby Council heard reports from members who are interested in the matter in various parts of the district. Mr. Procter suggested that a committee of seven from the Council and three from the relief workers organisations be set up to control the matches, and that its decision be final on all points. Mr. McLean (Paraparaumu) moved on these lines.

Mr. Runnier, the sponsor of the scheme, said that travelling could not be undertaken by the players, because of the expense; but a certain number of players would be available to play in each town every Saturday. There should he four senior sides in Levin, providing two games each Saturday. It • would be necessary to have the sides balanced. Thirty-minute spells were suggested. He thought that better gates would be realised than this Council had had. The members of the Council should take part in the scheme not as a body, but as individuals working in cooperation with the unemployment organisation. He was taking steps to ascertain what players were available. It might be possible to have two matches on a Wednesday and invite the selector along to balance the sides for future matches. Two or three rounds might by played, according to what Saturdays were available. There should be separate competitions in at 1 least Levin, Shannon, Foxton, and Ota hi. Mr. McGill" reported on proposals before the Otaki Relief Committee for benefit matches. Mr. Procter offered his services' to assist the movement at any time. •

The Chairman (Mr. A. Richards) suggested that, instead of the Council setting up a committee, the local clubs co-operate with the Relief Committee.

Mr. Rimmer recommended that men able to take part in the games leave their lianjos at the shops of Mr. Bonld, Mr. Wilkinson, and Mr: Rvder.

Mr. Robinson reported that four teams had been formed in Foxton and a shield had been presented to them.

It was resolved that each centre in the district set up a committee to co-operate with the unemployed committee in that centre; that the smaller townships form groups; that this Council take no responsibility for expenses; that members of the Council act as a supreme Council to deal with any contentious matters arising out of the games; that the matches shall not take place in a town when a team is already travelling out of or playing in that town; and that no permission be granted for the playing of matches on Sundays.

Strong criticism of the Kereru football team’s default to Foxton Fire Brigade juniors at Koputaroa last Saturday was voiced by Mr. F. Robinson (Foxton) at the meeting of the Horowhenua District Council on Tuesday evening. He stated that, on the day of the match, Fire Brigade rang up Kereru and asked them if they had a team; and the reply was in the affirmative, and this was confirmed in a later telephone conversation. Fire Brigade juniors left Foxton as a full team, (but after waiting for some time at Koputaroa, had-to" return without a match. Thus all their expense of travelling had gone for nothing. Kereru only had four men on the Held when Fire Brigade «arrived, Mr. Robinson added. “Fire Brigade are entitled to pat in a claim for expenses,” said Mr. Procter, “and Kereru should be suspended until those are paid.” On the motion of the Chairman, seconded by Mr. Gillespie, it was resolved that the Kereru Club be written to and asked for an explanation.

“Are Foxton aware, that they have Ibeen playing a senior player, Robinson, for the past month?” asked Mr. Mitchell, (Shannon) at the meeting of the Horowhenua Rugby Council on Tuesday evening. “He played rep. football and thus became a senior,” Mr. ’Mitchell added. The reply devolved upon Robinson’s father, a vice-president of the Council, from Foxton. He said that in the rep. match, which was Horowhenua v. Te Kawau, his son only played as a substitute, and at very short notice. To be a senior (he added), a man had to be picked straight out as a senior; moreover,, a protest against a player’s status had to be lodged within 24 hours of the match. The position was brought to a conclusion by Mr. Procter pointing out that a ruling had been given by a former Chairman and duly recorded, that no member of the management committee, but only a referee of a club, was entitled to report an infringement.

AITUTART’S ALL BLACKS. There is a little island named Aitutaki, some 1700 miles off the New Zealand coast, where the coloured population is ethusiastic about Rugby, Mr. 'C. C. Waters, chief officer of the Waikawa, which arrived at Melbourne from Vancouver recently, told of a sporting gift and an appreciative native community. Twelve months ago a vessel visited the island, and left a number of jerseys, the gift of the New Zealand Rugby League, for the use of

the coloured youths, who were re puted to be keen on football. Twelve months slipped by without another vessel appearing, and then the Waikawa, on putting in at the island, found a team of remarkably expert footballers. To mark their appreciation of the Rugby League’s generous gift, the natives entrusted Air. Winters with the care of a sacred stone axe, to be delivered to the New Zealand Rugby Union Legend has it that-the axe is 700 years old, and that it was used in the construction of some of the earliest Maori canoes. Supposed to have been lost for 200 years, it was discovered recently, and now has passed into the white man’s possession. It will be adopted as the official mascot of the famous “All Blacks.”

Rugby football, as played in the South Sea Islands, is not the safest of games, according to Pay-master-Lieutenant J. R. Hogan, of 11.1M.5. Diomede, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey this week to receive treatment for a badly-dislocated shoulder received in a Rugpiy match at Pago Pago (says the Herald). “The grounds are a fair imitation of concrete,’' he said, “and, added to this, the natives invariably tackle high. This so/metimes has disastrous consequences.” Paymaster-Lieutenant Hogan said that in the first game the Diomede’s team played in the Islands, against a native side at Nukualofa, a member of the naval team was injured and had to be sent back to Auckland on FI.M.S. Dunedin. In the game at Pago Pago in which he himself was injured another member of the Dunedin’s team had his leg broken.

Teh Palmerston North High school first fifteen defeated Napier High school by 30 points to 16 yesterday and recovered the Poison Banner. The game was a particularly good exhibition of the code. The Auckland touring team defeated West Coast (by 21 points, to 9 at Greymouth yesterday. The English League team defeated New Zealand bv 59 points to S at Wellington yesterday. * The.referee of a football match in Sydney recently got into a curious dilemma. When he tried to blow for some flagrant off-side play, he put the whistle into his mouth in such a way that a vacuum formed inside the whistle and he had to seek assistance in detaching the whistle'from his tongue.