Rugby Pioneers Look Back On Early Days

Chronicle (Levin), 5 June 1948, Page 4

Rugby Pioneers Look Back On Early Days

A pleasing -air of informality marked the gathering together in the Regent Hall last evening of the yeterans of. rugby football in the Horo whenua and in particular of those early members of the Levin and Wandersers and' the united Levin Wanderers Football Clubs. Many* visitors from all parts of the North Island were present and many were the "stories told and games re-played as old club mates chatted of past days. There was no official toast list and from the start, thejchairman, Mr. N. Winiata, stressed the jubilee committee's desire for the evening to be a strictly informal one. ' Several of the original team spoke' during the evening, recalling fhe trials. and handicaps of travelling and fielding teams in the early days. Notable among these was Colonel C. G. Powles and also the original captain, Mr. W. L. Fitzherbert. Colonel Powles said it gave him great pleasure to meet once again those survivors of the first team. After congratulating the club on its progress over the years-, the speaker . referred in glowing terms to the members of the Wini^ ata family. ; • He had come to Levin in 1898 to take up his profession as a solicitor said Mr. Fitzherbert. As there was nothing in the way of summer sport they had started lawn tennis, but the court was a wooden one. They also inaugurated a cricket club and soon had some really fine men in the team. It was in his first winter here that he . and other early players started the game of rugby. Most of the team were from secondary school teams and they started by winning every- game that season. Referring also to play in the early days, Mr. H. Denton entertained those present with many humorous incidents. He was followed by Mr. Jim Parker, a well known rugby personality- in the district and member of the New Zealand Rugby Union, who after a fine reference to the early stalwarts of rugby in the Horowhenua, extended the congratulations of the N.Z.R.U. to the club. There was one thing the Pakeha had given the Maori, and that was football, said Mr. Hector McDonald; Now that they had that, they no •longer worried "about killing each other as they had in the past. He was proud to associate hlmself with the Levin Wanderers Club, continued Mr. McDonald. Because of its foundations it was a club which could-never decline, he said. The; one particular fact. he liked about the Levin Wanderers was. the way ih which both Maori and Pakeha played- together as" one team and as brothers. Mr. Parker, he said, had referred -'to the fact that the club had gone through lean years during its history, said Mr. McDonald "Of course it -went through lean years^.Evfen-T . had to - play for. ik once." Musical items were provided during the evening, among these being a duet by Miss Ruth Green and Mrs. E. Dixon with Mrs. D. Green at the piano and also a solo voeal numbers by Mrs. T. Winiata accompanied on the piano by Mr. C. Weaver. Community singing was. later conducted by Mr. Dan Rikihana- to the music of a piano and piano aecordian. After a' tasty supper had been served, those present formed into> groups some discussing old times, while others gathered round the piano till midnight brought to a ciose one -of the most delightful functions on the jubilee programme.