FOOTBALL.

NZ Truth, Issue 95, 13 April 1907, Page 2

FOOTBALL.

(By "Pakeha.")

Wellington Rugby Union senior 'championship competitions > commence on Saturday next. . Skelley, the. Manawatu rep. who who was m Wellington a little while back intimated his intention of playing for Poneke, which would be much the stronger for his inclusion m the red and blacks rearguard. Skelley has gone back to Palmers ton North, but is shortly expected m town, where a billet awaits him. Sellars has forsaken the Poneke ranks for Wellington. .The "yellow, and black recruit was no great shakes last season whatever he may. be this season 1 . ■ '= Southland Rugby Union finds the three .selector system preferable to one man performing the work. The supporters of the single selector method included Billie Stead, who gave out that he was not standing for the position this season. The writer has ! promised to. let himself go on some future occasion concerning a "shicker."scandal at this port y in which the principal. prole wws played by the manager of a r Southern rep. team, the attempt by the same individual to pull the strings through the then rep 1 resejntative Of ;his» Union, by which he would receive the position of ( co-manager, 6r advanoe representative of -the "All Black". team, and the refusal of the said representative to entertain such an impertinent proposal, and the effrontery of this " person m pushing his claims lor the position* of .•vicepresident, of his Union, on y the 1 New Zealand Rugby Union, to the exclusion ■- of a gentleman' whose social standing and wealth is , a household word 1 m the "most select-" classes" of the three' lsland Colony. "^ These little, matters, however, can. very wejl stand over until after, the annual meeting of the Colonial .Union; m May.. '. •;;.; . ■; v ' ■-. „ Boh GaMjraith has, been rerelected hon. secretary of the Southland Rugby Union;. for the eighteenth year m succession. - Let's see, it Was Bob who warmly acknowledged the compliment, as -he • thought; of the - New Zeaiaiwi: -Rugby Union m .appointing him manager of the All Black team to -visit! Australia before its wanderings m Foglandy whewas it was his namesake, the shipping clerk, who somehow got the job. With, all his faults. f ßob is a gentleman, „but tbjfr other "Gaily" \?tants his brain-box brushing out badly, and 1 a fresh mixture inserted. )■-■■■. George .> Maodpnald, the lean, cattdaverous "looking Scot,' whose at-« titude, when on his feet, remjfodsj one of the parsonioal <Rang of North-, Gibibs, and 1 company, is this year's President of the Otago, iftugby Union^" Mac is a fearsome apparition foe young; Rugby bucks to stumble ak cross, and bis Methody bleat for the. purettess of the sport and the damr nation of all offenders against its code, would frighten very ;heil 6ut\ of South Sea cannibals m quest of (' long pig." . The writer's iiapresr sipns of our gaintly-like friend, sprain three or four years ago. would hardly be publishable, but the missioiujs?. ing influence of Campbell, Hutohinspfi and! Company, may fi^ve brought ar bout his regeneration," since thaf; period. Anyway we don't want his kidney over the 'head of our own local;: Union, by Heavens no, To have : men of Maodonald's sti^np ;the, Rugby house . would " "JnfiaiwiMfcp!-. worse than . spending one's "natural 1^ m. the i Siberian mimes. . , Does the Dunedin eulogist of sec-^ retary Robb, of the New Zealand; Referees' Association really expecs people tip here to swallow tne bally, rot, pronpunoed' at his benediction ajt an after "guz&Le," that he, ItoW>, bad' spent m,uclf time and money furtherance of its (the Association's-) interests. That Robb has devoijea; time, to aiding the Association's cause I am prepared to concede, but to ask me, or anybody else, to gulp the f 'boodle" item is a task far beyond' the power of aiortal man t6 accomplish. ISfete the writer inyeste^l with , the miraculous gifts of th& disciples of Bibdical' renown, he might perhaps have found the statement digesta'ble. The treacle-shovellers at the Dunedin gathering evidently had some poor stuff on " hand when distributing their favors"" amoi^ thS deities of coloiiaal lelerefeism. Pro* hably Robb,. himself, was "narked* at this blast of bunkum. Gollan,' the ex-Dunedim Club player, has thrown m his lot with PoaekeV In practice ffames with •■ the Clud. h* has < show:n fine defensive powers . Th& , Southerner hurt himself rather badly; m Ms preliminary canter with the red atrd blacks. : • '. • A Dunedin writer, wai.ling over the slump m the Dunedin bdek tbiyisiQtt this season, says he has n&t •heard of any prominent players taking 'th 4 . place of "the departed ones. The. balande-sheet ■ of the h •Southland ' Rugtoy Uii'On shows that the expe^di* ture during last season aniounted t* £2720. which inolitded '0i&4& 15s foe purchase of new grouiid and £808 expended on new grounds. The ovsr* draft at the bank is £690 10s i and the Union has a millstoi;« jroUn.^ its neck m the 1 Shape of £1300 joiined from the New, Zealand Rugby Union at 2£ per cent. Jhe bAlance^ of 'assets over liabilities is put down • at ! £i1«9,, but to, the writer th« former seems to.. be, mostly on paper. Crikey ! The annual report of th« Southland Rugby Union, which is mostly maoiipula'tod) by secretary Bob Galbfaiitb, congratulated the .said Bob G-albraith and one, Lennie, on the success of their representation of the • Southlamd Rugby Union- at . the last meeting. '■• of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and delegates, of course, m the absence of information to the contrary, swallowed this bally nonsense With gusto.. The pair mad© about as bifc a name ,for themselves at the colonial conclave as Edgar

ty>lie did at. the "aU Ulixlt" Rugby, Wpiou. social a few oo'ntlis ago. A*o»rt ta« only- iimm Giaihraith (who Is a very decent fellow) and his mate did was to fail m line with "Flufrer" Mason, . yj bringing, about a dirty coup by whici' S-wu^aajid secured it» representation on. the Executive, and Canterbury * got one of its biggest tooJs on. the same seat of the Rugby coaoh. In Jack Lau<frhton, however, who is one of Southland's delegates, the committee" secured a sensible* level-h&atled feilo^«, whose line of. act-ion would probably not commend itself to Mr -Face-tooth-ways Dixon and Company. ... • . : Last se a »6n the Auckland Rugby Union raked m £1081 7s from InterUnion ■ miatches. The net profits (shown m; parenthesis) from the , Various matches were a s follows .— Taranaki, '5271 is lid ; Canterbury, £146 14s ad- Wellington, £530 17s 10d> ; Southland, £&5 ,8s 7>d ; Thamesj £51 3s 3d ; GoldOelds, £40 7s Id. / : The Auckland Rugby Union spent just on £63 m entertaining the WellingtoH team ; during Hs stay m the Northern oity* last year- An amount of £13 was 'spent: on the Taranaki tnen, £41; 4s on the Canterbury team, and £43 16s 2d on tiie Southr landers. ■ ■ . '' ■ Ponj&jft's pr«want trouble is t° unr earth a |§«id'«arwn half. Hborgan's arrival fxeaa ; Gbß»tcnurch is doubt- : ful. *Pb<i xgA "and blacks have. a very clever yduMß*«r from last season's Petona ti3i^-clase division. Joe - Pu'dney and Billi* Wallace give him a brilliamt par»er. He is only fifteen, and is. too light to ?'buck up", a^. gainst mpn-iOf "^h« stamp "of. "Bumper" 1 - Wrig^iiy^Jack : ;Spencer, Lile and others. ; . r ' Walsh,- who. played m the Poneke back divis*ian last year, is captain and sscretaty of the Scinde* Club, Hapier, this season. The ex-Welling-tcnian is sa-idi to have given a great account of hifloiself . the other day. ; . The "country week" ' instituted last se&s.cm by the Otagp Rugby Union served to bring several promising Rugby players to light, who mi'gM. otherwise have languished m the backblpdis. • When the. senseless conservative^traditions of the Wellington Ruby XJtL\on are swept away, the Province will have an opportunity of pitiiajjg some fine players from Way backl'a'RaiQst foreign invasion. Men of ibr,awn -nnd muscle, and only a little tutprsMp ,to knock off the rough cornets to make them as good as anything we have seen m 'the Rugby "arena. . Since last^ season Steve Casey, the; All Bl?\ck , front-ranlcer, has joinedthe ranks of the benedicts, and^ this fact has g-iv&r rise to the rumor that he will 'be found on the bank this seaso;n.- -When the play commences m earnest,- the Otaeo hooker' will likely, b.e' fotind putting his pound m with ''the, best A . Athletics have bagp^d Staai'den, the Southern hooker of last season. The Wiles have got hold of a good man, who, howfeyejr; \vijl came to rrief some fineatternoon if" he does not tesirMA' ; 1# viciousness. The hint mij?bt t» talten t6 heart by this promising player. y ; • It is pechaps rather late m "the day to offer my cbngra'tulatibns to Mr ■"Ron." : Hood on his complete restoration to health after an illness Widtik, &"fe on» time, threatened '■ to ftad to ssriiHis cocseQiiences. , But'better 'late •' t&an n«yer" is an axiom whioli applies well to . Ron s c : ase,. Wtem a*ex#ary of the ; AtbJetao -Otviti . -'bui- t»i0B«r nad the rtepiitiatfion' qtitfSt betng tii# Vsst Club manipulator, ol tW «w|^7 M>crctarial reins m the* city, and ri^t sojry were the blues •vjrhen hs defied, to hand them over vb soin« cm aliffi for all time./ His enthusiasija fo^the game is still as ; strong as *vyr, and. the blues' success always means .great joy to Ron. fie and I have had . some pretty 1 warm debates oyer Rugby toe. ball, but we thc^r QU'ghly understood one another, and I rejoice to say are as good frienids as it is possible to 'be. Alf Bayly has been nominated by •ehe Taranafe Rugby Union as a vicejiresideni; <?f that Union on : tlie N,Z:'R.U. All is no longer a resident of th*. butter province, so if effect is given to the present Managin-' 1 Committee's move,, as uneautiously hinted at by Edgar Wylie, fto confine ' %h» selection of yice-pres-iflents to residents witbin the districts of their own Unions, the man who has upheld the honor of the colony on t3i4 "Rugby . field, and m 'a. nonl-active sense helped the grand old game along m a hundred ways., . will b« debarred from enjoying the honor conferred upon him, by the Northern body. It is not Alf, however, Gaily, Dixon and ; Company want to get. at, but another individual whose propensity for laying Ibare the scandals of the past, has earned their dying hatred. Athletics will be without the services of O'Meara .for a . few weeks, that player h.avm«r' gone back, on holiday leave, to Auckland. Griftin and P/MUips, Permanent, Ariillerv men from Wellington, have joined North Shore Club, Auckland. , Scobie McKenzie, whose friends howled so' over his exclusion , from the All Black combination, is . under orders for transfer from^ Auckland to the Wellinetpn Riailway Service staff. The long -up. will be no great catch on present form for any ClubV^iiicb. may secure his enlistment. His days, o£ playing usefulness have long, since waned. Grafton. District Club has, a fine financial record to boast of. Its assets are valued at £501 13 &d, while its simple liability is a mortgage of £35. It would be interesting for, say, Peter Heyes, or city valuer Jimmy Ames, to examane the balancersheet of niany clubs and find find out what the relative value of their assets really are. . "TouchlineV suggestion to invite rvcneral Manager Hoben, of the "New Zealand Times'" Company, to attend fcbe annual meeting of the Colonial Union and install him as. President for the season must appeal strongly to "Gallv " But iust fancy making a proposition of this kind to Barney Campbell, or Jimmy Hutchinson. Ye fcods. it would awake all the devil m Jimmy to see his erstwhile /.connueror at the Council board of'" -the Union. The terrible roasting the aubairnThaired one administered tq, "sarcastic Jiiri"and-Ghapin<an, whosp - di.sconi forti&e': drove him oiit of ; Rugbvdom and m§de him : a soured^ and discontented, ittian for life, as well as toihsrs of th^ opposition^c^q-ue^ is still a pleasant recollection m the minds of old Rugby .batgers.. Now Hoben is at headquarters^ and virtually dictator of ■&■ big newspaper concei-n, "Gallv": and if'grqyellef," Dixon will, nd' doubt, make haste' to fts»cul« the usual -lickspittling, bboa;^ thie is to be said, that never

m their references tto the New Zealand Union m public have they had the courtesy, much 'less' the generosity, to refer to the services of the man who was alone responsible for bringing the Union into existence, m the face of such powerful opposition as would have overwhelmed a less courageous man. At the same time I am not impressed with '"Touchline's" suggest/ion re the President's mantle being" bestowed upon Hoben, as there are other •gentleman, notably Mr Frank Logan, of Napier, whose services to oolonial football, au'ite apart from their, long connecirion "wifth the N.Z.R.U. as a "vicepresident, entitle them to prior consideration. However, "Gaily" will no doubt hasten to reassure everybody that— haw— a journalist occupying the high office of President— naw —is a guarantee— hawr-that , everything will be square and above board, etc., etc.— haw, haw ! If Hoben and Hutchinson get going at the New Zealand Rugby Union s conclave next month it would be worth fifty Donnybrook Fairs, from a spectator 'y ewpoint. ■■• And wouldn t the writer like' to see }he pair .shaping up, The big. fellow would tear the Rugby liver out af the Southerner, for sure. The late 'Dick Seddon pulverising George' Hiifchinson (brother to Jam), over the "Bun Tuck" Parliamentary scandal a few years ago, would be a fool circumstance ■comapr<Bd tb":Hoben's victorious onslaught.) • , ; v.'Tyniie, the Canterbury land South 'Island, "winger" landed m Wellington this week. The man m the street says Poneke has him all right. A report came from Christchurch to, the effect that "Dunk" McGregor Was^hurt /the other day- and it is dbiibthir'whether the Riighv fielttwill see him again. As to its oorrect'ness or not I am unable to say*