WELLINGTON CHATTER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 914, 12 September 1907, Page 13

WELLINGTON CHATTER.

My • Wellington correspondent writes: — When it was officially announced that the Manawatu-Wellington game was not being played last Saturday, on account of the county union not being able to raise a team, the following remark was made to me:—“The bottom is being knocked right out of the Rugby game; it is only a question of time when it will die right out altogether.” Of course, it was a very strong partisan made this remark, but the experiences .of the footballing public of Wellington on the last two Saturdays has not tended to make them loud in their praises of the players of the game. . The match between the representatives of Taranaki and Wellington was abandoned after being half played, .and the Manawatu game was abandoned without ..a, kick being given after It had been freely /.advertised all the week. ‘The noh-keeping of .-engagements by representative teams' is one of the things that will

tend to alleviate the support of the « public. But there is another feature of the: game that impresses itself very firmly on the minds of any person that thinks deeply, and who has the wel-. fare of Rugby at heart. I am not a supporter of professionalism in connection with football in any shape or form, but I am perfectly satisfied the. new movement has come to stay, and that next year the ranks of those who play under the Rugby Unions as at present constituted will be depleted considerably through the introduction of the Northern Union style of play and government. The handwriting is large upon the i wall, yet the New Zealand* Rugby • Union are perfectly satisfied with hav- •' ing disqualified one man for life. It i is true they have endorsed other dis- j qualifications imposed by affiliated ■ Rugby. Unions, but otherwise they have folded their hands and taken no ! other action. Personally, I think the , governing body of football in this colony should have made some pro- ' nouncement by this time, for, without a doubt, they are up against the big- • gest- problem in the history of the game, and one which will terminate their existence—or curtail their in- , fluence considerably, at any rate. The writer of these notes ventured the prophecy once —and it has been “ pooh-poohed” many times since—that the “ All Black” tour through the British Isles would do the Rugby game no good in this land. That prophecy is being fulfilled, but my remotest ideas were far removed from the manner of its fulfilment. The professional team is what I am referring to just here. But there is another phase that is more unpleasant still. The returning “ All Black” has had the trip of a lifetime, and a tour through New Zealand has no attractions now for him. Talking to Roberts last Friday he said: “ No, I am not going South with the Wellington team; I cannot afford to lose my pay for the time I am away from work, and to get knocked about for nothing.”

Wellington will be weakly represented on its Southern tour, which commences on Thursday of this week. The first match is against Canterbury on Saturday, Southland the following Wednesday, and Otago the next Saturday. Of the five New Zealand representatives—Wallace, Roberts, Mitchinson, G. and J. Spencer—Mitchinson is the only one that can make the trip on behalf on his union. Southern footba’l, however, is very weak, and they should hold their own. It is hoped that Wallace and Roberts will be able to play against Canterbury. A match was played at Miramar last Saturday between teams representing' the Union Steamship Com? pany on the one hand and the other shipping companies doing business in Wellington on the other. The red funnel men were beaten by six points to three. Jockey Breen, the old Auckland representative, was to have played for them, but he was not in evidence, when the ball was in play. The Wellington Union’s share of the

gate in the abandoned match was £ll. There is a proposal on foot to hand this amount over to charity, with the object, I suppose, of convincing the public that the money was taken from them unwillingly by the Union. The statement that football is stronger in the North Island than in the South is fully borne out by the tour of the Aucklanders. The defeats of Southland and Canterbury and a drawn game with Qtago should help to relieve the feelings of Auckland friends who were bewailing the nonsuccess of their tourists.