Sculling Championship

Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1921, Page 1

Sculling Championship

AILNST COMPLAINS OF APATHY

OF PUBLIC

i BLENHEIM, May 28 ! Sneaking nt a Harbour Board function at Havelock, “Dick” A rust, the sculling champion, made an outspoken ( condemnation of the apathetic attitude o! the Blenheim public in connexion I with the forthcoming race for the I world’s sculling championship. He j mentioned his admiration of the district, hut “lie had been all over the world, hut had never been in a place where things were more at a dead end.” Ain.si added that if lie won the race, j and other circumstances were satisfactory, he might row Hadfield on the Wairau river.

A rust’s outspoken charge of apathy ! against the people of Alarlhorough was accompanied by a profession of unbounded admiration for the district itself, the climate, and the Wairau river, hut it is not at all relished by the I general body of citizens. It is admitted in rowing circles that the “atmosphere” created for the classical event is not electrical, hut it is pointed out that this place, has a limited population, and enthusiasts have no right to expect tin* buzz of interest that would go on in the vicinity of the Thames and the Parramatta. Some residents are inclined to he a little angry, attaching some importance to what they regard as an uncalled for reflection on their community standards, as the public utterances of a. man of Artist’s prominence in the world of sport have a habit, <> r circulating widely. They are asking what it is exactly that the champion thinks they should lie doing? The fact that the classical struggle is to he fought, out on the Wairau river is generally appreciated, and the event is being anticipated with a great deal of interest, though there lias not been much demonstrativeness. Have they failed, they aslc, because they have not been throwing their hats up in a state of excitement some weeks in advance of .Tune lllli? One querv is whether the champion considers the people of Marlborough any higher in the scale of civilisation than the natives round about the Zambesi river?