AQUATICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 31

AQUATICS.

F/ - o»i Our Own Correspondent. London, December 13. Tom Sullivan tells me that Stanbury is evidently in earnest about coming Hone to row Harding for the " Championship of the World." He showed me a letter the Australian had written to Stevenson, in which he declares that he is perfectly willing- to row on Harding's own terms and to take the mjdost £SO offered as expenses. So far so good. I haven't the slightest doubts as to Stanbury's bona fides in this matter. But there is a passage in the letter which does not seem to me to favour the idea that the match is likely to take place. "I will give you my sincere thanks for arranging as to my boats and the stake money," says Stanbury, and this sentence seems to indicate that the Australian cannot find the necessary money for the match in his own country. There are of course plenty of wealthy Antipodeans at Home who would be willing to find the amount necessary for Stanbury did they know the champion to be in anything like his old form. But what has he done in the way of sculling during the last year or so ? Even Australian sportsmen at Home, ready as they are to assist their countrymen, do not like to buy a pig entirely in the poke, and the report that Stanbury has graduated into a passable Tichborne will naturally cause them to hesitate to find the .£SOO stake money, and several pounds more for " exes." From the tone of the Australian's letter it strikes me that he under-rates Harding somewhat. Now I do not propose to insinuate that the little man is " boss of creation " at the end of a pair of sculls, but I will say that for his size and weight he is a marvel, and that Stanbury will have to be at his very best to beat him over the Thames course. Stanbury will also be wise to remember that Harding will be favoured by training in a climate to which he has been accustonK'' from birth, the vagaries of which, however, have often " cooked the geese " of imported athletes. Moreover, " Wag" knows every twist, turn and eddy in the lhames course, and this knowledge cannot be gained in a short space of time. Of course with Turn Sullivan and Stevenson to coach him, Stanbury would have every opportunity of picking up the wrinkles quickly, and their experience would be extremely valuable to him in other ways. But these advantages notwithstanding, Stanbury will have no baby's task if he ever gets into a racing boat with the intention of cutting down little " Wag" Harding over the long and tiring Thames Championship course. The secretary of the Wellington Rowing Club has received from the Registrar of Friendly Societies a certificate of incorporation showing that the Club has been registered as an unclassified society under the Unclassified Societies Registration Act, 1895. The Club has the distinction of being the first rowing club in the Colony to be registered under the Ace, and in this respect the Club is indebted to its hon. secretary (ilr A. M. Burns), who has been a warm supporter of the movement for the registration ot athletic clubs since its initiative by the Wellington Rugby Union.