CORRESPONDENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1527, 24 August 1912, Page 12

CORRESPONDENCE.

PEOPLE DT GLASS HOUSES. Folk who resido in glass houses should not throw road-metal, but it seems a peculiar' human anomaly that they aro just tho people who do. Let me explain. vye Leaguers in New Zealand are now beginning to "see daylight" after an uphill battle, thanks to our own efforts and the splendid and generous assistance of *e\v South Wales, but, no sooner do we hnd ourselves getting on our feet than we are obliged to ward off a quantity of brioks and ironmongery thrown at us in the name of sport. We should not, we are told, receivo into our ranks players who have been suspended by the Eugby coutrols. Is this fatuity being circulated by the Rugby controls themselves? If so, they are condemned on their own practice. We consider that any player is eligible to do battlo in the League ranks so long as he does not offend against League control, and good-government, and, in that idea, the ltugby Unions must be of the same opinion as ourselves, or else why did they permit a "soccer" man, who was disqualified for lifo by his own control, to play Rugby for Wa'iwetu? This'is no' lone-hand - case, either. In Rotorua a plaj-er named Rogers was disqualified by the Rotorua Rugby Union three years ago. Sinco then he played League, but, through somo difference with the League management, ho turned back to Rugby, and what happened then? Uas ho turned back? Nay, verily, he WB3 received. He is now a Rotorua Rugby rep. _ A number of other cases in Uotoraa, of similar signilicauce, are also known. The "inott in the glass house" (who we Leaguers take to be the Rugby consols) should certainly throw no pebbles at us in the name of "sport," or we may firo tho big cannon of "Auti-Huinbug" off at them. , Wei might, for inetance, ■ have pointed out to the echoolbovs that the League game is better than Rugby, tli.it they stand less risk of injury in it, that it calls for better training and higher qualities, etc., but did we? We did not. It was left to the dwellers in tho glass house .of Rugby to go round to the schools and lecture the boys to beware ,of the league. Was that sport? Then, take our bi» venture at Newtown Park to-day. .Crowded out nnd bovcottcd everywhere, we applied to tho Wellington City Council for the ground, and they replied that other bodies already had it. Practically, we were shut out, but the "soccer" people, with a spirit which dops them infinite credit, came to cur aid, and gavo us their piece of tho field—a ground lying east and we«t and (as it happens) a little too small for the League frame. We should have liked to have k> id out a full-sized ground, and also a ground ramiing north and south, so that the public could have looked on in comfort from tho bank. But for that we wcro entirely dependent on the sporting spirit of tho Rugby Union to give up an adjacent ground on which cadets nro playing to-day. They told us that they had no other ground for the cadets, and wo then oll'ered to give them our ground at Duppa Street, or to pay the cadets' rail fares to Petone, ami also to defray the union's advertising expenses in connection with tbo change. Did the Rugby people meet us at nil? Nnv, verily. In tlio name of "truo sport" they 6tornly r<"fii.«cd.—l run, elt-., WHAT IS SPOET?