FOOTBALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 450, 21 June 1902, Page 1

FOOTBALL.

NOTES AND COMMENTS,

| By “ The Whistle.” | A special general meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union was held in Wellington on Thursday evening, J2th inst., to consider several notices of motion relative to simplifying the professionalism rules with a view to sending, a New Zealand Rugby team to England in 1903. After a lengthy discussion, during which several amendments were negatived, the following motion by Mr Coffey, the Canterbury delegate, was carried: —“ That in the opinion of tho delegates of the New Zealand Kugby Union the time has arrived when definite

steps should be taken to send a New Zealand representative football team to Great Britain ; that it be a special instruction to the Management Committee to bring the matter about, and to make the necessary arrangements to send a New Zealand representative football team to Great Britain not later than 1903." It was estimated that the whole tour could be made at an expenso os J 65619, and it was suggested that each player should be paid a living wage of £8 per week while absent from tho colony. It is with regret we notice that both players and spectators in various parts of the colony havo been indulging in bad language at football matches. ‘ It will be remembered that the Stipendiary Magistrate at Mastorton recently drew attention to the evil, and as a result of his strictures the police of that district brought cases against several persons for using objectionable language. The evil is fairly rampart in Christchurch, and we observe from the Weekly Press that a bad case came before the Canterbury Rugby Union last week. Both the players and onlookers at a junior match gavo the referee a bad time, and the Uuion decided that the language used by tho team in question had been disgusting in the extreme. Two players were suspended for the season. 11 Dropkick,” tho Press’s football scribe, remarks : “ The prosecution of some of the spectators would go a long way towards checking an evil, which, if allowed to grow, will degrade one of the finest of manly sports.” Wo are very pleased to bo able to chronicle that such practices are unknown here. Our football escutcheon is unsullied by any such regrettable incidents as'seem to be tarnishing the records of the game further South, and we feel sure that both the players and supporters of the Rugby game in this district will see to it that it remains so.

Local referees complain that the books of reference to the laws of the game possessed by the Poverty Bay Rugby Union are antiquated. This is a defect which should be remedied at once, as it is impossible for referees to interpret the laws unless they have the latest amendments to refer to.

Linwood has already annexed the Canterbury Rugby championship, having won the whole of the eight matches they have played. While on a brief holiday a short time back, I was proceeding along the East Coast, and happened upon a cottage by the seain the sunlit bay of Puatai. Adorning the wall of a room in this cottage, I noticed an old football photo. It was mellowed with age and somewhat faded, but the players were plainly distinguishable, as was-also the inscription at the foot : “ Gisborne Football Team, 1881.” On looking closer to see what manner of men represented Gisborne twenty years ago, I was surprised to see the familiar faces of some present-day staid and sober business men among the group. The team was as follows :—G. A. Bourne, T. E. R. Bloomfield, G. R. Wyllie, T. Halbert, H. H. Ewen, H. Cooke, A. Barnes, J. Berry (captain), E. A. Pavitt, W. B. Milis, Te Ilani, J. White, V. G. Day, E. H. Pavitt (hon. see.), and C. White. They wore a likely-looking lot, and I could not help thinking that if they could only muster their team again from the four quarters of tho globo, and call back those who have “ got through ” for their last try, the 1881 team would;, give the twentieth century men perhaps'more than they could manage were the old and the new to meet to-day.