LEAGUE ROW ENDS WITH A BREEZY CENTRE MEETING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17759, 1 February 1926, Page 4

LEAGUE ROW ENDS WITH A BREEZY CENTRE MEETING

SECRETARY’S RESIGNATION ACCEPTED UNDER PROTEST COUNCIL’S DICTATORIAL ACTION CRITICISED. Only because they had no option in the matter, the Canterbury Centre of the Rugby Football League accepted the resignation of their secretary, Mr W. S. ~E. Moyle, at a meeting on Saturday night. The resignation had been demanded by the New Zealand Council and was mandatory. Members hotly protested at the council’s action. During the meeting some strong criticism of certain officials was voiced, and the atmosphere of the whole discussion may be best described as sultry. In opening the matter of the resign aton of the secretary, the chairman, Mr T. Kirton, read the following letter from the council; — At a wneciai meeting of the New Zealand Ruel.y League, held at Wellington on Saturday, January 23, the question of the position of your League and the Board of Control was fully discussed. The decision arrived at by a large majority of delegates present agreed that the action of the Council in regard to the resignation of your secretary be confirmed; that you be requested to obtain the resignation of your League’s secretary. Mr W. S'. K. Moyle, together with all books and/or documents pertaining to your League, be handed to you forthwith. Kindly see that this matter is attended to immediately. W. O. CARL AW. Secretary League Council. Some discussion followed the reading of this letter regarding the manner in which Canterbury was represented at the recent meeting of the council in Wellington. “I’M GOING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING.” Mr E. Healey presented confidential information to the meeting regarding the council meeting in Wellington, which he had attended as the centre's delegate, and then began an impassioned defence. “ 1 have been accused.” he said, “of not being four-square with the public. Now I’m going to tell you something about that, and I want the Press to take everything F say tonight. If what T say to-night is not right. I’ll cut my throat to-morrow! ” Mr Healey went on to attack the methods of the council in demanding the resignation of the secretary. They had queried the secretary’s balance-sheet, but it had been duly audited and found correct in every particular by a city firm of public accountants. “ With ail his guilt,” declared Mr Healey, “ he has some innocence. The Neyv Zealand Council arc the assassins of the Canterbury League, one of its affiliated bodies.” HEARSAY AND HERESY . At the council meeting, continued Mr Healey, he had endeavoured to get the council to produce some evidence of the guilt of Mr Moyle on the charges they made against him, but they could not. Then he had asked that a special meeting be called at which Mr Moyle might state his side of the case. This the council refused to do. “ In mv opinion,” he said, “ they have tried our secretary on hearsay and a good deal of heresy! ” Mr Moyle: Quite so. Mr Healey: Mr Moyle has got to go! That is their ultimatum. A member (ironically) : lie ought to be shot! Mr Healey: Yes, that was the ultimatum. Now, I'll just show you to what lengths some people will go. As soon as it was decided that the books be handed' to the chairman of our centre and that Mr Moyle’s resignation be demanded, Mr M’Keon moved that Mr Carpenter be appointed secretary. The chairman : They are even going so far as to appoint our secretary for Mr Carpenter: I rise to a point of order. I was not consulted in the matter, and knew nothing about it at all. Mr Healey ; I don’t believe you did. Sectarianism was the cause of a great deal of the trouble, declared Mr Healey. He blamed one section which had introduced the sectarian issue. “ IT HAS BEEN ROTTEN.” Mr Kirton, in rising to read the secretary's resignation, said he felt his position keenly. As chairman he was asked by the council to take over the books from Mr Moyle. This trouble made him feel that a lot of the work he had put into the game in the past years had gone for nothing. Mr Moyle was one of that first band who had •planted and nurtured the tree and . watched it grow. It had grown well, but scurrilous things had been done in the past two years, and persons had come forward who were helping to cut down the tree. “From the time thos6? men came in and had a part in the management of tlie game they had the secretary set,” asserted Mr Kirton. They had come to the speaker with threats and accusations. “ The sort of thing that has been served tip to us in the past, two years, gentlemen, has been rotten. 1 for one don’t want to see this executive go out. There are people waiting to step into your shoes if you do. Some of the reports that have been going around the town are simply rotten. All I can say is that if anyone comes to vou with tales, I want you to take hold of him and make him prove them.” It was his duty to take the secretary’s resignation, but he was very sorry to have to do so. Mr J. Chick: I'm against accepting the resignation. In asking for the secretary’s resignation the council is moving a vote of no confidence in the centre. Mr J. Lyness: I also am against accepting it. The chairman said that the secretary had been accused of all sorts of things in connection with the balance-sheet. The balance-sheet had been audited and signed by a firm of public accountants. Mr Chick: Is there no option but to accept the resignation ? The chairman : It's mandatory from the New Zealand Council. MR MOYLE’S RESIGNATION. The chairman then read Mr Moyle’s resignation. The letter stated that he resigned in compliance with the request of the New Zealand Rugby League. The ultimatum from the New Zealand League was probably without precedent in the sporting pastimes of the Dominion. lie complained that the decision had been arrived at on spiteful and untruthful opinions and underhand methods of certain persons. He hoped that the executive would carry on the good work of the code, and he offered his assistance on certain conditions. He suggested that the New Zealand Council should be asked to reply to certain correspondence regarding his resignation. Certain finance voted to .him was still outstanding, which was a further proof of the cpite used against him. He wished the code every success, and thanked the players and officials for the support given him.

i said a. word against Mr Moyle. He ■ thought that Mr Moyle was labouring under a misapprehension in regard to him. Mr Smyth said that as far as he was concerned he was willing to get out at once if the game did not want him further. Mr W. Healey moved: “That the resignation of the secretary be accepted. and that the Canterbury Centre resign in a body as a protest against the action of the council.” He hotly condemned the people who had worked for Mr Moyle's resignation. “ I’d sooner see every league player in the game go over and play soccer or Rugby—it’s not as good a game, but its management is better—than see our secretary go out,” he said. The Board of Control had held the threat over their heads long enough that they would take Monica Park from them. Let them do it; the game would go on just the same. There were other parks. But the board could not do so. They might be backing the park with £.s.d., but it was the player and the man on the bank who counted. The delegates from the clubs were the representatives of the owners of the park. Mr Healey’s motion, lapsed for lack of a seconder. Mr Kettle moved: “That this centre refuse to accept the secretary’s resignation.” Mr J. Childs seconded the motion. Mr Moyle: I'd advise you, for the sake of the young players in the game, to accept my resignation. Consider your clubs. Some people are working now to put others into your shoes. I came into this game clean, and I want to go out clean. Mr Kettle then withdrew his motion. Mr Chick said that if they accepted Mr Moyle's resignation they were assisting to crucify an innocent man. He moved that the resignation lie on the table. Mr C. Tilleyshort seconded this. The chairman said that if they did this they would only prolong the agony. The council were “ the boss dogs,” and the centre had to do as it was asked. RESIGNATION ACCEPTED. Mr E. Healey then moved: “That this meeting of delegates of the clubs affiliated to the Canterbury Rugby League Centre regrets that the secretary has resigned owing to the action of the New Zealand Council; the cause is owing to the defamatory reports of persons in Christchurch, who desire the secretary’s removal for their own purposes. The executive have the fullest confidence in the secretary, do not desire his resignation, and are quite satisfied with his abilities; and that the whole of the books arc in accord and correct as disclosed in the report of the public auditors.” This motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Mr W. Healey then moved that Mr S. Richardson, of the Addington Club, be appointed secretary of the League Centre. Mr E. M’Ewin seconded the motion, which -was carried. Mr W. Ilealey moved: “That, the centre place on record its appreciation of the work of Mr Moyle during the past fourteen years, and that the motion be forwarded to the New Zealand Council.” “ They may frame it,” he said, “ but I don’t think so.” The motion was seconded by Mr Kettle and carried. A STRONGLY WORDED MOTION. Mr Childs moved: “That this meeting of the delegates of the Canterbury Rugby League Centre endorse the action of the executive in support of the letter from the Sydenham Club on October 13 regarding Messrs E. L. M’Keon and E. A. Hooper, and that they be disqualified forever and their names be removed from all records of the local centre.” Mr M'Ewin seconded, and the motion was carried, there being only one dissentient, Mr F. Smyth. Mr E. Healey: I have another motion here. It is “ That this centre demand the resignation of Mr M’Keon as treasurer of the Board of Control.” Mr W. Ilealey seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. It was decided, on the motion of Mr W. Healej’, seconded by Mr J. Childs, that the M’Keon Cup be handed back to the donor. The meeting then adjourned till Monday week.