TROUBLE WITH BOXING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19683, 28 December 1933, Page 7

TROUBLE WITH BOXING

SPASMODIC PROMOTION. The trouble with the boxing game in the Dominion at the present time is not so much that of inactivity as of spasmodic promotion, says a Southern writer. The interest of the public in the game cannot be restored to its old plane by the staging of merely one contest —a series of attractive bouts is necessary for that purpose and that is where many associations have failed. One failure has damped their ardour, and consequently when, after a long interval, they have had to begin again where they previously left off. The revival of boxing in New Zealand is about due. but it will not be accomplished without much effort, and the whole matter is one on which the New Zealand Council might well formulate a constructive policy for the coming year. Everything j>OßSible must be done to develop New Zealand talent, and efforts made to bring across good boxers from overseas similar to that made when Johnny Leckie was in his prime. One or two boxers are not sufficient A good team should be brought and a circuit of contests arranged throughout the main centres of the Dominion similar to what is done by the Dominion Wrestling Union. That is one way in which boxing can be restored to its rightful place in New Zealand sport. The New Zealand Council has been an active body in the past, and now is the time for it to make a move to awaken interest in the manly art of self-defence Everything possible should be done to cncourace more lads to take up boxing ;u a means of recreation, efforts should be put foi-ward to increase the number of boys in amateur ranks, and if this is done then it will not be long before New Zealand is again producing profighters capable of holding their own with the best from overseas.