RUGBY CODE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 111, 7 April 1927, Page 2

RUGBY CODE.

OLD PLAYER’S OPINION,

LONDON, April 5. “It always has been a matter for regret that the Rugby code was not universally adopted throughout the Dominions,” says TVIr Alfred St. George Hamersley, K.C., M.'P., writing in the Evening News. Mr Hamersley participated in the first Eng-lish-Scottish international match; and was the originator of Rugby football in Canterbury and Vancouver. He says that all who have seen the All Blacks realise Australia’s and Canada’s loss in not adopting Rugby. He recalls the first New Zealand match .in 1874 played at Ashburton between ®North and South Canterbury players, who travelled fifty miles, fording rivers in coaches, and returning the saijie evening.—Sydney Sun cable.

Mr Hamersley, who for some time practised law in New Zealand, was a colonel in the New Zealand Militia and captain of the C Battery, New Zealand, Artillery. He married a daughter of Mr Hastings Snow, of Wellington.