ATHLETICS

Southland Times, Issue 19464, 31 January 1925, Page 14

ATHLETICS

(By “ On-side Mac.”) E. W. (“Slip”) Carr, the well-known Australian sprinter, who was in Wellington last month on his way home from an extensive tour of Europe, was married shortly after, landing back in Australia to Miss Queenie Tyson, one of the inheritors of the Tyson millions. A Wellington writer hits out: —“A certain section of the Wellington cricketing public take a fiendish delight in sorting out Dave Collins when be is taking part in a rep. game. He is the target for all the sarcasm going, and should he happen to make a mistake he is pelted with abuse from every part of the ground. If the self-same croakers had half as much sporting blood in their earcases as Dave Collins carries in his veins they would perhaps view his performances in a decent light. This writer is not going to say Collins is an Armstrong as a leader, but I will say that he is a fine cricketer, and if the rest of the Wellington team could be imbued with his enthusiasm, the Plunket Shield would never leave the province.” The postponement of the Otautau Athletic Society’s' gathering, necessitated by the Health Department’s regulations in regard to children at picnic and sports gatherings, was bad luck, but it’s an ill-wind that blows nobody good, and the postponement at any rate gets the gathering clear of , the wool sales which would have affected the attendance to some extent. The next j sports meeting is Tokonui, which takes . place on Wednesday next. The local Society has decided to box on, and the ■ children will not be able to attend, but : Tokonui should have a good meeting all the same. W. R. Patrick (Canterbury) has a i unique record in Plunket Shield cricket, i His score of 129 in the send innings of the [ match with Auckland gave him the highest , individual aggregate in Shield matches.

He has played in more matches than any other player, and in 53 innings he has compiled 1580 runs. J. S. Hiddleston (Wellington), who held the highest aggregate at the end of last season, is not far behind Patrick with an aggregate of 1533 runs for 33 innings. Patrick’s best score in Shield cricket was the 129 made against Auckland recently. The reports in various papers which stated that Nepia will create a record for an overseas Rugby player if he turns out in every match of the present New Zealand tour recalls the records of A. F. Harding, the Welsh International fonward, and J. C. Jenkins another Welsh International forward. When the All-British team skippered by B. Sievwright, toured Australia and New Zealand in 1904, during which they won every match in Australia, and lost two in New Zealand, Harding played in every game of the tour. For a forward this was even a greater feat than Nepia’s, if the hard grounds met with in Australia are taken into consideration. A ROMANCE OF ATHLETES. FARMER WHO BECAME WORLD’S CHAMPION. SOUTH AFRICAN’S REMARKABLE STORY. The story of how an obscure South African farmer, Arthur Newton, all because of a grievance “agin the Government,” trained himself for long-distance running, and eventually, when over 40 years of age, became a world champion, provides a romance as strange as any in athletic history (state the Cape Times of December 22). For the psychologist, too, there is food for reflection in this odd example of what an idea can do for a man when it is carried out with singleness of purpose. Arthur Newton has returned to Capetown from England after his running triumphs abroad in October and November. He comes back acclaimed by responsible, newspapers and famous athletes in England as a “wonder athlete,” and “athletic marvel,” “the greatest runner the world has seen,” and so on. SCHOOL TEACHING. And this is his strange story as he told it to a representative of the Cape Times:— “I came out to South Africa at the beginning of 1902 to an appointment as a school teacher,” he began. “I was teaching for 10 years. Then I decided to go in for farming. “The Government were offering Crown lands in the Harding district of Natal for sale to white settlers, with the object of getting that part of the country opened up and developed. “I availed myself of the offer, investing my life savings in land, seed, stock, and equipment for cotton growing and general farming. “Single-handed I cleared 140 acres of bush-covered land, and cultivated it; I made 14 miles of good motor roads; I built hut accommodation for myself, and later for the one white assistant who joined me for a.couple of years. “According to the testimony of the Government experts themselves, the king cotton I produced was the finest in South Africa. I won a first prize at the Harding Show for tobacco growing.” Testimonies to the truth of these statements had been furnished, Mr Newton said, by a Mr R. T. Falgate, a Government expert in Natal, and a Mr Scherffius, another Government expert who went down from Pretoria specially to see and photograph Mr Newton’s crops. EFFORTS NEGATIVED. “In one year I made £4OO or so from my cotton alone,” Mr Newton went on. “My farm was progressing rapidly year by year. It was hard work, but I thought) I could see my legitimate reward ahead. I was looking forward confidently to being able to marry and settle down comfortably for life as a useful citizen in the country I had come to love. “Then came the inexplicable Government action, which eventually dashed my hopes, negatived all my efforts, and brought my hard-won farm to worthlessness.” The Government, it appeared, decided to settle Kaffirs on the Crown lands round about. “I was cut off by a ring of these natives and completely isolated,” Mr Newton continued. “The Kaffirs, unlike myself, paid nothing for their land, their only charge was £2 a year as hut rent—and they spent most of their time in beer drinking and loafing about. Their land went practically unattended. My position became almost intolerable.” TO GAIN PUBLICITY. In 1920, unable to get hired labour or assistance, Mr Newton said practically the whole of his crop was ruined by weeds. He applied, he said, to the Government, through the Native Affairs Department, to exchange his land in the now “black area” for suitable land elsewhere. “'Fhe Government refused pointblank,” he went on. “They also refused petitions made to them on my behalf by Mr Marwick, M.L.A., for Illovo, and the Alfred County Farmers’ Association.” Then Mr Newton came to his unusual decision. “I decided,” he said, “that my only course was to gain publicity somehow. I had done a little amateur running in a dilatory way in my youth, and this perhaps gave me my idea. “The public always has a soft spot for the athlete; amateur athletics are about as clean as anything—why not gain prominence and publicity by breaking running records? After that I could bring home my grievance ‘agin the Government.’ “I decided that was what I’d do and I got into training—hard. I trained myself day after day, week, after week. I found myself improving beyond all expectations, and in 1922 I entered for the Durban-Ma-ritzbrug race.” FIRST SUCCESS. To the surprise of everybody and himself as much as any, he not only won the race against such runners as Rowan, of the Congo, but Phillips, the South African Olympic representative, but he broke the previous record for the distance as well. Papers and athletes were loud in their praises. His case was given public notice once more. As a result, he said, land in Zululand was offered him by the Government in exchange for the worthless Harding farm. “But the offer was too late,” Mr Newton continued. “My capital was nearly exhausted, and without monetary help it would have been waste of time to go to Zululand. I was therefore forced to decline the Government offer and ask for compensation in money. This the Government refused to give, and refuse to give to this day.” In 1923 Mr Newton set up a world’s record by running 50 miles in shrs 53mins 56secs. This year he went overseas, where he beat his own 50-mile world record and, says a writer in the London News of the World, “absolutely pulverised every known long-distance record, track or road, amateur or professional” by his remarkable feat in running from London to Brighton, a distance of 52 miles 200 yards, in shrs 53mins 43secs. “I APPEAL FOR JUSTICE.” It was “the most remarkable performance ever accomplished on the road,” said the Sporting Life, “the greatest runner the world has seen,” added W. G. George, the old champion long-distance runner. Other comments were equally enthusiastic. Mr Newton had won fresh laurels for South African athletics. Returning here, he hopes once again to be able to settle down to farming, and once more he is appealing to the. Government to look into his ca esand give help. “I value citizenship in South Africa as much as any man,” he said, in conclusion. “I am as capable at hard work as at athletics. All I ask is to be given a reasonable chance. I appeal to my fellow-citizens and the Government for justice.”