SPRINGBOKS' AUTOGRAPHS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19423, 7 September 1937, Page 7

SPRINGBOKS' AUTOGRAPHS

RUGBY UNION DECISION TO AID (.'RIPPLED CHILDREN Those wishing to secure the autographs of the visiting Springbok Rugby players will have to secure them through the Gisborne branch of tin- Crippled Children's Society, according to a decision made last evening at the weekly meeting of the management committee of the Poverty Bay Rugby Union. A parcel of 500 printed sheets bearing the signatures of the tourists was received by the union from the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, as requested by the New Zealand union, with instructions that they were to be handed over to some charitable institution for sale. A covering note explained that the application for their autographs received by the visitors in the North Island became so numerous as to be irksome. It was impossible for the Springboks to deal with every request. Therefore a special page had been prepared bearing reproductions of the autographs of all the tourists, and in each centre visited by the team a supply had been forwarded for distribution." Autograph hunters could obtain the signatures without causing the visitors any annoyance and had the added satisfaction that they were handing a small donation to a good cause. In Christchurch the sale had been in the hands of the Crippled Children's Society. On the motion of Mr. J. E. Mercer, seconded by Mr. K. F. Jones, it was decided to give the same society the right of the sale of the sheets in Gisborne.

The thanks of the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society were expressed bv the president, Mr. F. W. Nolan, at last evening's annual meeting when advice