HOCKEY

NZ Truth, Issue 913, 26 May 1923, Page 8

HOCKEY

A CRITICISM RESENTED ■ j And the Reply* v (By "Follow On. M ) - "Truth" stands for clean sport. It likes to see sport well-controlled m accord with the best ethics. It Is well aware that most of our healthy field sports are controlled by good fellows who give. of their best for the advancement of the game m which they are most interested-— and do it with no thought of fee or reward except that satisfaction which service gives. But sometimes the train of good intention runs off the rails. May happen wrong signals, are to blame. There may be one, or some, or many reasons.. Still, if the train is off the rails, the duty of all good sports is to help it back to the right track. "Truth" and "Follow* On" are among the army of sports and, when they can, either help to avoid pending trouble or, if the trouble has arrived, are prepared, to assist m overcoming it. -"- That is why, m last week's issue, certain happenings called for, some caustic comment on the control of hockey m, Wellington. ,' The criticism has not been pleasant to the powers that be. The smart it occasioned seems to have affected their vision and their judgment. Otherwise they would have seen that it was m the real interests of the stick game. > "Truth" had been on sale only an hour or so when a meeting of the Hockey' Association's Committee was hastily convened for the same evening 1 . It was a great tribute to "Tj:uth." It is not often that. Truth, is so much m evidence at any .meeting. . The Committee decided that many of the statements m. our article were untrue and that the criticism, levelled was absolutely unjustified and' outside the bounds of fair comment. A letter was ordered to be sent to "Truth" and it has been duly forwarded to "Follow On." The chief passages of. the article taHen exception to were: "A bit of a stir was caused at this stage by one member pointing out that though members of the Management Committee were desirous of holding others to the rules, they were not above breaking them themselves. A, specific instance waa given where one, no other than the Chairman of the Committee,; had already played for two clubs this season, Hula and Wellington., No action was taken to deal with this admitted breach." The Committee claims that the matter was not mentioned at the meeting. Whether this is, so or not, the actual instance is not denied and at least one other member of the Committee was aware of it. In justice to the Chairman it may be said that he admits the breach and is quite prepared to submit to any action the Committee may now take. It is now for tlie Committee to bring the club concerned to account, . The Committee 'denies that the position of sole selector "was hawked round, the town.*' Well, perhaps' not, but "Follow On" has heard four names mentioned m connection with it, and even if thfese men were not approached officially, some of them are said to have beon "sounded" to find out whether they were available. -.. .. '"'.'., The Committee claim that Mr. Manning was asked to act and not merely appointed without his consent. This is the position: On the Monday night the Committee met. No Press reporters were present. In two daily papers next day appeared a statement that Mr. Manning had been appointed sole selector. On the Thursday following, Mr. Manning received a letter asking him to accept the position of selector. Mr. Manning replied that he "had very much pleasure m refusing th.c position" and he pointed out that the Committee might at least have asked his consent before making a public announcement. To this the Secretary of the Association replied: "Regarding your advice that the person m question should be consulted before making a public announcement, I have to say that that is precisely what we did m our letter to you on the 17th inst. It the Press did not accurately record the motion, this is to be regretted, but, of course, you will agree that thla Is a circumstance over which we have ho control." "Truth" has the word of a responsible officer of the Association that no representative of the Press waß present at the meeting, so obyioußly the report mußt have beon supplied for publication. If it was supplied It is for the Hockey Association to say whether they have any control over what ap» pears m the Press under such circumstances. - v " "Follow On," act an old friend of hockey, strongly resents the Imputation that hia comment last week was dis- j torted or misrepresented the facts. As to the remark m the letter received that the Committee "will not tolerate allegations such as those contained m your article" he would merely comment that "Truth" is always up against any attempt at bullying — off the hockey field. ■ At the same time our anti-bully policy, being only m accord with our policy of fair play, does not prevent our giving reasonable space to the well-meaning but ill-advised request for a contradiction of the "inaccuracies" m "Follow On's" article last week. A clear atmosphere is healthy. Now rend my first paragraph once more. The Hockey referees also hejd a meeting on Wednesday last, an-1 "Truth's" article so far as it referred to them came up for discussion. After tho matter had been thoroughly threshed out, the meeting decided thnt no motion was necessary. Ono member indeed said that "Truth" had don? the' referees a service by getting: them together, which had permitted differences to be cleared up. The Chairman said thnt the only unfortunate thing about "Truth's" article was that It was true.