A LONDON CRITIC ON NEW ZEALAND ATHLETICS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 126, 29 May 1891, Page 4

A LONDON CRITIC ON NEW ZEALAND ATHLETICS.

(London Correspondent Otagq Daily Timet,) " Vanderdeoken,? I—writing1 — writing in the Sunday ; , Tinw<: deals at some length with New Zealand athletics, apropos especially of the i chainpiojwhJp meetings in February. "Jumping," he says, seems to be the weak* • eat; i form at athletics practised in New Zealand, the best long jump is only 20ft 6in, the best high lump sft 6in, and the pole \my 9ft lOin. But, as I stated Ufst ▼ear, the crack athlete of the whole oolony Is H. W. , Batger, Wellington, the hurdler." s VJ'heoouolußion one comes to is that Australasia "owns some very fast athletes, but how they would measure with the best ! of ; the United Kingdom 1 and America is not' at >■ .i | all. easy, to, determine. . Climate may make ,'. .' aU'the, difference, and it is very probable that the New Zealand air is more suitable to . the attainment of nigh speed than is that of ' ' ''the British' Isles. G. B. Shaw was oredifced „ I with, making some very, fast times qjrer hardies in New Zealand, but signally failed to do anything phenomenal here when, he I "'Muni on a visit to his native country, ,: But ( (the atyle of Batger is .spoken ofju^bejng , -„ unusually good, aad I, for ray part, am qriite i'o: Prepared to find him. all that isolaimedifor : r . Urn, Judging by, the certain and easy way iv fe*' -gauM 5 W«' viot9ries. Now,' the other .' , interesting Hem is the powibUiqr of a Hew ' Zealand afchletio team peing present avthe ■• English championship in June next, and ' 'tha probability i* this projeot fails,' of ont coming over in 1892, Readers, remembering* the visits' of an American athlete, (i : armed ; with a certificate whioh empowered him to pay his way after the manner of professionals by taking e, ahare of the gate money, will not feel iholined to exhibit : maoh V exuberance at, thia announcement. But this visit' will be on true amateur lines, lot the expenses are to be covered by the wbscriptiops of Clubs, and no assistance "idted fromlEngland. Thicr, metbinks,<wiU be something different from the tour of an Eagliib "amateur" football team in Aub,t»»lip,»whiph,.itravelled under theaußtoices . , and at the. expense of some speculative ; cricket profeuionals who took their ohanoe ' of "what profit there was to be meide but of the transaction. The calculations • faade k dttppp^e that five athletes! will be tanti and that their stay in England will lattt 65 days, and the oott in eatimated to" feaoh *'A67fr, "This prewupposes that each man's stay iAt;EagUnd .Will cost £1 per d»J; an Mtimate, I need not point; ou, fc, which isi very ' nitMh too high. A party of five boarding iogetiterin London would- toot be required to pay more than,- if ft» much, as half of £7, ana Idaresay. there are many London honie> f irtlfe Ww would show the thinf could bo done very muoh cheaper, without any depredation iu th« style of living, But this u a mere detail. What we have to consider 1b the immense amount of enthusiasm which Blast exist in. a oolony that calmly contem,pj«tei(tjbe pending of representative athletes * a distance of 12,000 miles to contest -with the old ' country the honours of ohampionahip. I am advised that the visit! will '©parcel/ take place this year, but that its '■ realiaation in 1892 may be looked forward