ALL BLACKS OF 1928

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16622, 14 April 1928, Page 7

ALL BLACKS OF 1928

"WILL DO OUR BEST" WELLINGTON'S FAREWELL DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH AFRICA. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, 'this day. Four 'thousand people assembled on the wharf to-dav to say farewell to the 1923 All Black'Rugby team on its departure for South Africa, in an endeavor to win the Rugby supremacy or the world. Each member of the team was permitted to say a word of farewell over the wireless. " 'Good wishes for the team's success were expressed by the Mayor and Prime Minister, and the Governor-General sent the following message from Auckland : " 1 semi you all my good wishes for a happy time." Maurice Brownlie (captainj and Mark Nicholls (vice-captain), eacli bearing giant ferns, led the team up the gangway, and, at 3.15 p.m., the Marama left the wharf, severing hundreds of streamers connecting the ship with the shore.

" We want you to remember," said Mr. G. A. Troup, Mayor of Wellington, " that we are proud of you. I should like to commend to you the will to win. I am sure that your captain has this quality and I hope you will all cultivate it when you are away. I hope you will think of New ■ Zealand and —

Her mountains so high and her valleys so green. Be steadfast! Cry .speed ! Fight on, Ake! Ake l'-Ake f•'

'' The selectors, said the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, had made a declaration that Iho players had been picked as much for their character a.s for their playing ability. "We know," continued Mr. Coates, " that the team will take any victories they may secure with modesty i and that they will make no excuses if defeat should come their way. The tour will have the effect of bringing the people of South Africa and New Zealand closer together. All I can say to you is ' Haerera kia kaha " —the best of luck, the best of good wishes, and may you return to your own people with honors surrounding you." " I would like to assure tho people of New Zealand," .said Mr. W. P. Hornig, tho manager of the team, " that 'if we are defeated the members of the team will feel the defeat more keenly than tho people of New Zealand. We trust we will not let you down, and can assure you tha,t we. will do our best to go down in history as a team which always played the game. OLYMPIC COUNCIL'S GOOD WISHES. . The Prime Minister, as president of the Ne'vv Zealand Olympic Association, delivered tho following message to the team before its departure : "The Olympic Council joins with othei .sports bodies and the sportsmen of NewZealand in sincerely wishing the All Blacks of 1928 bon voyage and every success in their great mission to uphold New Zealand's Rugby honor on the fields of South Africa. Our Rugby teams in international contests bear a responsibility that is borne by no other of" our sports. The very fact of their outstanding successes over a long period of years has placed them, on a peak which is not only a standard to which our other sports are striving to attain, but also a point on which outside criticism of New Zealand is focussed. The All Blacks, year in and year out, are, in the truest sense, tho custodians of our national sporting honor. Their earnest endeavors to win have at times drawn on us unfavorable but wholly unjust criticism, for that earnestness is but a due tribute of respect to the great game' of Rugby football. •" The Olvmpic Council feels that in the hands of the All Blacks of 1928 the two great traditions of New Zealand Rugby football—never to excuse defeat, and to take victory modestly—are safe. The Olympic team at Amsterdam will be heartened by the efforts of their compatriots 'in South Africa and they, like ns. acknowledge a debt of gratitude to'the All Blacks and the New Zealand snd Wellington unions for the fine, expression of the true. Olympic spirit of friendship between sports in the exhibition match on Wednesday, which will so materially help the Olympic team along the trail to Amsterdam."