AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1485, 6 July 1912, Page 7

AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

~• [By "Mercwt."] [Continued from page 12.] Tho more one ponders over the possibility of there being no New Zealand oross-country championship this year the more apparent it becomes that it is difficult for some athletic bodies to feel anything in tho shape of gratitude for past help at the hands of kindred bodies. Every year siuco its inception, Wellington Harriers have helped to make this event a success. At their own expense, men havo tripped from Wellington to north and south, to fill the fields, and yet, this year, when the championship is being held here, the Southland, Canterbury, and Auckland Centres fail to return the glad hand. Tho Wellington Centre ran itself into debt to tho extent of £35 last year in order that tho first New Zealand championships held in Southland might be the more successful from the presence of hor champions. Last year, too, a helping hand was extended to Auckland by a team being dispatched to contest the crosscountry championship held there. This year neither the Auckland nor the Southland Centre has made any serious attempt to prevent the fixture falling through. As for Canterbury, well, she has never of late years been to the fore in any athletic charity missions. So the position copies to this: Unless the hardly-pledged littlo club at Hamilton finds'ltself equal to the burden of representing the whole of Auckland province, the cross-country championship will, this year, fall through, and, if it does, the New Zealand Council will be failing in its; duty if, next year, it allots tho event to any other centre than Wellington, which has so richly earned,it.