THE NATIONAL GAME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2785, 16 September 1924, Page 1

THE NATIONAL GAME.

THE LEAGUE AGITATION. S.avs Friday's Levin Chronicle: — The League game which will he played in Fox ton on Saturday, between a Wellington and local learns, is a rather pathetic indication of the eagerness of those controlling the League code, to establish the game within the boundaries of this Union. Unfortunately for the promoters of the new code —new at least as far as this district is concerned —the visit of the team merely serves to draw attention to the isolation a League club formed in the Horowhenna district -would suffer, and the expense to which they would be put to in travelling to games. Fortunately the Foxton players are recognising this fact, as reluctance to join the newly-for-med club testifies. So far there does not appear to he any indication of any locality outside Foxton and Oiaki seriously considering- League, and under the circumstances there does not seem to !.<■ any likelihood of the game surviving even Iho first season. With only two teams playing in the disIriet, no mailer how good they may be. it is impossible to get up a competition, or even to maintain a competitive spirit. Certainly one or other of those teams might, indulge in costly travelling to Wellington, lml even then it could only re-

turn to play again, against a team which familiarity had robbed of novelty, and where there would be a little honour in winning, as there would be pique at a defeat. That, the Horowhenna Rugby Union lias not been perfect in its administration it would be foolish to deny, but it is a truism to state that “a people always gets the Government if deserves.’- In othei words the clubs are governed by (he people they send to represent them on the Rugby Union. Until each club refrains from expecting that its delegate will be guided only bv the interests of bis own elnl>. to the exclusion of every other consideration, the present state ot things will continue to exist. A fmt is needed is men who are big enough to view the interests <h Rvtglu hi the Union from the viewpoint of the Union as a whole, and if the clubs will onlv drop their parochial bickering and enable their representatives to take a broader view, there will he a cessation of much of the existing trouble. That the lack of vision exhibited bv the Union through its delegates

is responsible for much of the present agitation —limited as'that is despite the fire-works with which p bas been ushered in is unquestionable. The cure which is being adopted is, however, based on a. wrong diagnosis. The Horowhenna Rugby Union is not an arbitrary body with autocratic- powers but simply a collection of'club -representatives who can he replaced at lu-xr general meeting, or earlier if necessary. To revise the Union executive if it is not satisfai-foi > the solution of the trouble and not to rush after false gods as is being done by those who advo.-ale the de sort ion" of New Zealand’s national .■ame in favour of Longue.