BUMPTIOUS RUGBY BOUNDERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 67, 29 September 1906, Page 1

BUMPTIOUS RUGBY BOUNDERS.

The New Zealand Rugby Union is extremely unhappy m its* choice of ani Executive, and the fantastic tricks of some of the bumptious, caddish bounders who find a place thereon— ou what credentials it would puzzle even themselves to explain— are continually bringing the 'Union into ridicule, contempt and discredit. It is not many weeks since the whole of the papers of this city were impelled by the airs, insolence and ignorance displayed by some of these beggars-on-horseback to administer a unanimous and well-deserved castvgation that for a time set the upstarts back m their proper places, and for a vlittle while after they, were fairly decently behaved and refrained; f rqm posturing before the; public m their Great Star Act, entitled ".We Are the People !" But the frequent; advent of visiting teams and the splendid opportunities offered thereby for putting on side gradually dimmed I the memory and assuaged the noign>ancy of that sharp chastisement, and jthe chest-protudine; performance be- • gan again and culminated ■ last Saturday m about the most blackgiiardliv exhibition of caddishness and .: gross ignorance of the amenities that has ever been given m connection with any form of sport m Australasia. • . ■ ■ , • • As has before been stated m. these columns, ■'tKete;^mKv mi nq i; 'Pre^s.^taWtr and seats provided on the ground, at a good point of vantage, as is the rule m any place where committees of management know their business and how much their sport owes to the Press, it has always been the custom m Wellington for the' reporters to ,be allowed to move a}ong the touch-line, or adjacent, so as to ■ get the closest possible view of the game and convey it to the readers of their journals who cannot be present ; or for tha.t matter to endorse or otherwise the views of those who' were present and who naturally discuss T the ~ame and desire to read expert . opinions thereon afterwards. In Wellington there are only four of these gentlemen who ever claim this privilege and m no other city is the number so small. They arc men who understand the , game. , and -their duties, and who can never, by the ■ utmost stretch of imtwjtna.iion, be accused of obtruding: themselves., or ■m any way interfering with the play. In ■ a word : they obstruct no one's vision and are never m the way. This beino- so, and an official of the Union, who had taken upon himself, some weeks ago, to tell the reporters not to go out on the field, halving been duly castigated by the Press and told by his committee to, "go 'wav back and sit down," it was natural at last Saturday's very, in-" teresting and important match, the reporters, who were 1 extra anxious to do it justice, /should take i up the coisrn of vantage that has by custom become theirs. They had not been notified that there was to be any change, not given the Opportunity to avoid any unpleasantness or ignominy and they went out to the field unaware that they were breaking . any rule or order of the High Priests of the N.Z.R.U.

But they had omitted to take into consideration the difference between dealing with gentlemen and dealing with snobs, cads and boors. Gentlemen would have caused each newspaper to lie officially notified before hand that the reporters would be excluded from their accustomed privilege. Such courtesy could not to expected from the obher kinds. Truly, at the p"ate, ten minutes before play began, the representative of "Truth "'' and of the Press Association, ww told by Mr J. H Merrie— who occupies the anomalous positions of paid assistant secretary to the Union and paid secretary to the Athletic Park company— that the reporters would, not be allowed to go on the ground that day, and was taken and shown a portion of the stand, ticketed "For Ruo-by Officials Only," where, assurance was given, seats had been reserved lor the reporters free from interference or overcrowdine. This gentleman accordingly, and with due humility, as became his lowly estate before the Grand Panjandrums of the Game, sat him down m. the enclosure indicated by Merrie and was fain to be content to get the best idea of the play he could from such a distance. * • ■ * He had failed, however, to reckon iwith a man called Neil Galbraith, who has by some means, attained the position ol (presumably) honorary;

treasurer of the N.Z.R.U.. and who is some kind of a clerk m a shipping company down about the water front. This fellow is notorious and an object of derision, not only m Rugby but m other circles, for the amount of pomposity and self-esteem he manages to exhibit: He sets himself up as a paragon oi Rugtoy virtue and has rendered himself hated by players and publicly notorious by his insolent, priggish oi dictatorship over teams he has been m charge of as manager. When m Sydney m that capacity, during the visit of the All-Blacks ,' prior to their leaving for En-gland, he became a butt and a laughing stock and the papers teemed with chaffy paragraphs and biting sarcasms as to his autocratic methods with the men, his monkeyish ■ mannerisms, his "haw"— which he slavishly tries to render a la that British bounder Bedell-Sievwright— and his damnable assumption of suy>erioritv over his betters m brain, education and breeding. So domineering; did he become over there, ordering better men than himself to bed at 9 o'clock, m the presence of mixed company, interdicting a glass of beer and stich-like tommy-rot, that, as is well known, he precipitated a sort of mutiny among that team and -sent a number of them on a rallykaboo they would m; all probabilty nev«r have dreamed jQi^ii^W&v' had liot ;beeri ' browbeaten and bossed like •, so many I nau^htv little school-boys, a raszle that came ver^ near to causing the team's defeat W N.S.W.. and as it turned out it was only b" sheer desperation, at the finish almost, that they came out with a draw. Gal-bra.it-h announced himself over there as the manager of the team for Eng-land—-but he did not to m that capacity, not if the team knew themselves and the Union had any sense 1 Yet, by some mysterious means his picture appeared m an illustrated sportin? paper m England with the caption : "Mr Neil Ga'lbraith, manager o' the Nnw Zealand Football Team." And actually a few people wondered who sent the photograph from which it was taken 1.-, It would seem io have been a case oi counting your chickens before they are hatched. ■'■.'■ ■ •■ " ' ■ : To vrpturE to Saturday's outrage. The gentleman already referred to was. then, quietly and unobtrusively occupying the seat Mr Merrie had shown him to. when the Galbraith .gazaba loomed up, acting, with, an obsequious pomposity, so to. speak," delicious for anyone with a sense of humor awd & strong stomach to behold, as honorary courier to the Hon. "Jimmy" Carroll and a few other parliamentarians and notabilities. On observing the nressman this ill-man-nered boor at once detached himself from the group and promptly and offensively informed him thai; he could not sit there as it wa*> a reserve for a Parliamentary party. This affront was .rendered the more bruta) by the manner of its delivery and the presence of a number of gentlemen to whom the pressman is personailv known. However, after informing the clown. Galbraith, that he had been shown there by ' Mr Merae, he left, and seeing his conferes out on the ground, as usual, went and joined them. They had been there some time— three of them, he and the reporters of the two dailies— and the players m the big match were actually on the field of play, where Galbraith., with true stage-managerial instinct, seized the psychological moment to make his prand pose m his impersonation of IT ; and actually had the , vulgar audacity, and ili-breeding to send a Doliceman to chase them off the ground. Tbey refused to be chased, producing their credentials and declining; to recognise Galbraith m the matter, saying, very properly, that their tickets were signed by Mr Secretary Wylie. & gentleman who acknowledges the value of the Prep, and they looked to him for any instructions as ;to their looale while on the around The policeman went sadly away: but Galbraith had got his Scotch dander un and was insistent, and added to his already brutal display of the ignorant arrogance of the upstart, by coinc to Sergeant Beattie and accompanying him and the constable to where the recalcitrant reporters sat undismayed. Still they disputed and defied Galbraith's authority— who, as a fact, had no right to interfere, but should have been attending to the cash boxes and not, stir-kin?; his ftnsrer into i^e secretary's pie— and Galbraith had to give, it .up, but induced Mr Merrie A

as secretary of the Park, to ask the [ .s^ntlemen feleave the grouhdi This they then did and thus we had the spectacle of three reporters being treated like boys who have crawled under the fence— practically ejected,' before the eyes of eight or tea thousand people. The <word ' -outrage" is not a ,whit too strong m the premises. « » •. The situation is an intolerable one and the sooner the Union recognises the fact the better for its interests and those of the game we all love. Without the aid of the Press and the immense amount of free advertisement it gives to football and the Unions, local and general, football would never have reached the pinnacle it has achieved. The "Evening Post" put the matter m a nutshell" when it said, m Monday's' issue : The needless affront placed upon the press by the. Rugby Union through its official ! in sending a police officer to remove 'the. reporters instead pf notifying. the newspapers of the union's intention's m advance, may have been due to the mistaken methods of the individual official, but the union ifcseli must bear ,the responsibility. Apparently it holds the opinion that it is a matter of indifference to the public what sort of report of the] game the press reporters may be able to put before thsir readers. We are beginning to come to ■ that view ourselves. It is growing on us that Rugby football has receiv-. • ed too much attention at our hands, and that ttie time of our: reporting staff and the news space of the paper may be better devoted ■to i better purposes. The Wellington, indeed the whole of N.Z; Press, has fathered the noble game, and without its support football would not, could not, possibly j have acquired the pre-eminence It has, as the sport of the people. Until, years ago, enthusiastic followers of I and participants m the splendid exerjcise,, wrote reports, con amore, "..for [the daily •"•arid weekly papers, it was j entirely .unrecognised outside the narrow limits of its own adherents.' It took a lot of Inducement, twenty years ago., to make daily papers give it space, even" when the reports of matches cost, them nothing ; aw. it was long before the editors of those days would acknowledge that football report,? increased their circulation and the popularity of their papers, and liegan to engage experts to report them for a very small emolument. To-day the man who can "do football accurately, readably, and from an expert point of view ,- is one of the most valued members of the staff of any respectable journal m Australasia • and the man who has no+ the brains nor the manners to recognise the power of the Press m the cause of football has no right to sit- on the executive that controls Its destinies. ■'• ■ •■ '•'. t" * Luckily G-albraith'. nor any other of the non-combatant bounders who never took a n active part, of any prominence r m the sport, do not represent the whole of the body-politic thereof. They are excresences on its growth and should never be accredited with its management, any more than should the views of a mob of people who never soared above terra firma. be taken as applicable to the practical extension of the possibilities of. ballooning. The New. Zealand Rugby Union and all its affiliated bodies, need to be purged of these dilletanti drags on its practical management. They are m the game for what can be made out of -it, socially, politically, or financially ; and sqm? of them have done very well out. of it 4 . one way or the other. They need choking off and the unions need new blood, unless the sport is to languish.