SPORTS LEAGUE DECLARES FOR BRANDON

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 133, 22 February 1918, Page 6

SPORTS LEAGUE DECLARES FOR BRANDON

(Published by Arrangement.) THE FOLLOWING MANIFESTO HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE WELLINGTON BRANCH OF THE N.Z. SPORTS PROTECTION LEAGUE:To the Members of the Wellington Branch of the Sports Protection League and all Interested in Outdoor Sports. Dear Sir or Madam, — It is part of our functions to watch your interests at Parliamentary elections, and to advise you as to the candidate whose views and opinions evince a respect for the lights, aspirations, and freedom of sportsmen. Active participation in athletic sports is a part of our system of education, and indeed of our national life. It gives to the youth sound and healthful bodies, affords the most effective antidote to the temptations which beset the young, and begets that discipline and control of mind and body so necessary to the building up of the true man and citizen.

We are proud of the magnificent patriotism which sportsmen have shown in this great war. It is shown in tho death rolls which hang in club rooms, in the depleted rolls of members, and in the depleted revenues of clubs. You, quite as much as any other class of die community, are by the laws passed by our Legislature, and you have an equal interest in the character and opinions of the men to whom is to be entrusted the governance of the country. Hitherto you have had no means by which to make your ■ influence in an election directly felt, niul your rights have in the past been ignored, and you have, been subjected to irritating and senseless restrictions. All that, it is hoped, will be changed. Of the candidates for tho Wellington North electorate Mr. J. P. Luke has shown himself at all times out of sympathy with our aspirations, has advocated the imposition of harassing restrictions on sport, and opposed tho exercise of the statutory power to grant concessions to clubs possessing

open-air grounds in Wellington until we were able to create an irresistible public opinion that these just concessions should be granted. He bolongs to a class of mind which desires to impose its own code and manner of life on the community, and to be eternally saying: "You shall do this. You shall not do that."

Mr. A. do B. Brandon, on the other hand, is an old sportsman, who, like many others, still takes an interest in outdoor sport for the benefit of the younger generation; he is in sympathy with our -/lows and aspirations, and is opposed to absurd restrictions on the legitimate freedom of action which is our due.

He is a supporter of tho National Government and of the Reform Party, so that the compact which preceded the formation of the National Government is not .broken. The league has no political bias, and its members are of various shades of political opinon. We have no desire and no right to influence your political views, but we have a right to say that Mr. Brandon is entitled to your support so far as your vote ought to be affected by regard for interests you hold in high esteem, and which it is the duty of the league to safeguard. We cannot allow election cries or dodges to cause us to remain silent in this election, and fail to single out the man whose habit of thought and whose sympathies are in accord with our own. That man is emphatically Mr. Brandon. Nor shall'we he deterred from this declaration by tho ridiculous cry that in so doing we shall be acting in the interests of Germany.

In making our declaration in favour

of Mr. Brandon we are acting on a unanimous resolution passed at a meeting of those interested in sport and sports bodies recommending to us the adoption of this course. ' Yours faithfully, C. P. SKERRETT, Chairman.

R. W. SHALLCRASS, General Secretary.

A meeting of Mr. Luke's men's committee will be' held to-night at the Committee Rooms, Lambton Quay.

Mr. J. P. Luke will address a meeting in the Methodist Schoolroom, Molcsworth Street on Monday evening, and will speak in the Town Hall on Tuesday evening. Mr. Brandon will speak at Wadestown on Monday, and at the Methodist Schoolroom, Molcsworth Street, on Tuesday.

Mr. 'i-I. E. Holland will speak tonight at the Masonic Hall, Boulcott Street, and on Sunday at tho Crown Theatre. A meeting' will be held at tlfe Post Office Square at noon to-day.

A Press Association telegram from Reefton states that Labour meetings at Globe Hill, Inglewood, _ and Big River mining townships carried a resolution wishing Mr. Holland success in his candidature for the Wellington North seat. Tho meeting subscribed financial support. A public meeting at Reefton carried a similar resolution with only one dissentient.