Affiliation Question

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 159, 8 July 1938, Page 2

Affiliation Question

WOODVILLE ATHLETIC CLUB NEW DECISION OF COUNCIL EAGERLY AWAITED Whether the Woodville Amateur Athletic and Cycling Club should be affiliated with the Manawatu and West Coast Centre or that of Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay is a question which is under dispute at the present time. In years past the Woodville Club has always been linked with the former but now, disregarding precedent and inclination, they have been declared, by the New Zealand Council, affiliated with tho Hawke’s Bay Centre. The question was introduced at a meeting of the club committee on Wednesday evening when Mr. J. Sullivan presided over Messrs J. Scott, J. T. Horne, B. Walker, R. Hurdle, E. J. Harding, and A. Harris and G. Butler, joint secretaries.

Letters referring to the issue, received from the Manawatu Centre, through which efforts are being made for an adjustment, was read. One reported that at a recent meeting of the New Zealand Council tho subject had been brought up but was out of order. It is under stood that the formal correction necessary has been made and that the matter will be brought once more before tho council. In the meantime and ai the suggestion of the Manawatu Centre, evidence of a community of interest with them has been amassed, and, backed by a petition for affiliation with Manawatu, has been forwarded for the consideration of the council when the question next arises. Mr. Harris, who canvassed the petition, reported that it had been signed by some forty persons, members and officials or the ciud, and also the Mayor and other businessmen in the town.

Discussing the situation at the meeting, various efforts on the part of men from the Hawke’s Bay Centre to coerce the local club into accepting the fait accompli, were mentioned. The committee generally expressed the feeling that, although they are in the HawkeS Bay province, affiliation with that centre would adversely affect the activities of the club as this place would have no chance of having the centre championships held here and that the meeting might be as far north as Gi» borne.

Mr. Harding stated that the club was within tile boundaries set down for the Manawatu Centre which went up to but did not include Dannevirke. It vras also remarked that in the past almost all of the outside support at the Wood viile Club’s meetings had come frdm the other side of the range and that very few entries had ever been received from Hawke’s Bay. There the matter must rest until the petition and other evidence is consider ed by the New Zealand Council, and it is fervently hoped that in view of it they will rescind their original decision joining Woodville to the Hawke’s Bay ttantre.