ATHLETICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 January 1928, Page 4

ATHLETICS.

N.Z, AND AUSTRALIA. !•' I TF RE IXTE I! X AT'I OX A L CONTESTS. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSN., COPVBMHI. - "WELLINGTON, Dec. 30. With the withdrawal ol’ Now Zealand from the Australian and New Zealand Amateur Athletic Union contests between the Dominion and the various Australian States will cease. The meeting just concluded is the last to take place under the old regime, but it i- by no means certain by wliat these meetings will be replaced. Along with the request for permission to withdraw from the Union New Zealand submitted to the Hoard of Control last

week, proposals that future meetings should take place between New Zealand and a Commonwealth team and should commence in Australia in 1930. This would make the contests really international. According to the statement of Mr Cl. E. Langford, a Victorian member of the Hoard of Control, however, it is hy no means certain that an arrangement such as New Zealand desires will be reached. The Victorian Amateur Ath-

letic Association has had its funds greatly reduced as the result of sending teams to Queensland lasl year and to New Zealand this season to defend the athletic shield, and the whole po-

tion will now have to be surveyed from a new angle. Some of the State associations are not very strong financially and the absence of New Zealand from the Union will not improve their position. It is not until the delegates of the various Australian States have met to discuss the future that it will be known whether it is possible to meet New Zealand’s suggestion that international athletic contests between the two Dominions should ba staged two-yearly intervals.