RUGBY TOUR OFF?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 29 June 1939, Page 6

RUGBY TOUR OFF?

ONLY £75 FROM NEW ZEALAND UNION AMOUNT REGARDED AK “VERT DISAPPOINTING" NELSON PRESIDENTS COMMENT At last evening’s meeting of tie executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union, stated a W ellington Pres* Association message to-day, it was decided to grant the Nelson Union £75 toward the cost of sending Ita team on a tour of the North Island in August. The Nelson Union has been awajtmft for some lime information as to thd amount which the New Zealand Union v.as prepared to give. Early this month the tour arrangement* received n setbac’* when Wanganui withdrew from tl ■» proposed itinerary owing to pressure of other engagements; and alt'r negotiation a match was arranged wJh Wellington second division rdM csentatives as a curtain raiser to the club final. The rest of the tour comprised Wairarapa and Horowhenua. The series was to be a build-up to the Seddon Shield match at Westport. The president of the Nelson Union, Mr A. H. Crawley, when interviewed to-day regarding the tour in the light of the present information concerning the grant from the New Zeeland Union, stated that the grant was a very disappointing one, and certainly the amount was not in accordance with the spirit in evidence et the annual confcience, when responsible opinion had led the speaker to understand that Nelson would receive a very much greater sum than £75. In effect, this grant was equal to only one-third Of the all-in estimated expenditure of tha tour (£220). POSTPONEMENT TILL NEXT YEAR I “ M .v own opinion at the present ' moment is,” said Mr Crawley, “that it will now be necessary to postpone the tour this yoer. I will recommend to the Union in this event that an effart be made to supplement our own funds so that we will be able definitely to state that we will go on tour next year. I do not think for a moment that we can raise sufficient money In the short time between now and August (when the tour was scheduled to begin), to enable the tour to take place this year.** Mr Crawley said that the matter would be finally decided at the next meeting of the Union on Monday night.