FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

There is soma likelihood of a New South Wales Associfltion football team visiting New Zealand during the coming season. R. Cooke, the well-known New Zealand Rugby representative, has decided to retire from the'■:game. - ' ; - ■ .v A public meeting is to be held at the North Shore in about a fortnight to consider the question of raising funds for the erection of a training hall for the local district Rugby football club. '. NEW ZEALAND RUG-BY"; UNION. • [BY TELEGRAPH.—-PRESS ASSOCIATION.] .■ Wellington, Tuesday. The Executive of the New Z»aland Rugby Union discussed the financial aspect of the proposed tour of .England next year. The cost of a three-months' playing tour was estimated at £5000. To establish a nucleus of the fund it was proposed that the New Zealand Union should find £300 and the unions in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch,.and Dunedin £100 each, and that the i union should endeavour to raise ■ a further. £150 each by ( means of debentures, tho smaller unions to be asked to take up £10 worth of debentures each and find an additional £40 each by means of debentures. These proposals were adopted, and will be submitted to the various unions for confirmation. It was also decidpd to offer the English team visiting New South Wales a minimum guaranteo of £600 and 75 per cent, net proceeds of five matches in New Zealand. A letter of sympathy ro the death of the late Mr. Sprag? _ was sent } to the Queensland Union. Palliser, one of the New Zealand Rugby Union representatives in London, cables to the secretary here :'■'" Very probable that the England team will visit New Zealand. You arrange with New South Wales by cable, terms and time." BRITISH COLUMBIA. TEAM MAY VISIT AUSTRALIA. Mr. R. P. Woodward has (says the Daily Province, of Vancouver, British Columbia) been corresponding for a long time now with Rugby football enthusiasts in Australia, and it looks as if a British Columbia team may havo a chance to visit tho antipodes and show the players beneath the Southern Cross how the game is played on the Pacific slope of Canada. In recent letters from that country an invitation is handed out for British Columbia to send a fifteen to Australia in 1905, and a very liberal offer to pay all expenses of the trip and maintenance in Australia is made. There seems to be no reason just now why the visit should not be made. There are a lot of young players who should be just right next year, and if measures are taken in time they should be able to arrange to get' away to.'; accept : . the invitation. ■'" It would be a fit encouragement to the men who have played through rain and snow to make Vancouver the banner football town of the province, and as it will likely be about the only chance for the trip under suoh circumstances in this generation, they should do what they can to nush the idea along. So far Mr. Woodward" has been doing all the work, and he can bo depended upon not to weary in his well-doing. Another move- > ment (says our contemporary) instituted by R«ggie Woodward is to get the English footballers, who sail for Australia in May of this year, to make tho trip over the C.P.R and through Vancouver. If they -come . this way the local team promises to give them the best imitation they know of how Rugby is played away from the homo of the game. Correspondence is now going on between Mr. Woodward and Mr. Rowland Hill, secretary of the English Rugby Union, in regard to the matter.