INTERPROVINCIAL RUGBY.

Shannon News, 6 August 1926, Page 2

INTERPROVINCIAL RUGBY.

SATURDAY’S GREAT MATCH. The most important Rugby match in the history of Manawatu will take place at the Palmerston Showgrounds on Saturday next, when the champion of. all champion teams will play the combined province. Never before has the Ranfurly Shield team been seen in action on a Pallnerston ground, and Saturday will be the eventful day of the meeting of Hawkes Bay and Manawatu-Horowhenua combine. The Bay team will be a full Shield side which will' meet Wellington a week later for the Ranfurly Shield at Napier. NO' one should miss this golden opportunity of seeing this great combination play in Palmerston,, and, although the Shield is not involved, the* match is sure to be of great interest. The combined team 1 have been putting in special training for the best part of the week, and should enter the field well and fit, for the great battle against New Zealand’s champions. The combined team will be led by Jacob and will, have a

splendid forward 'Side, while the backs will certainly be of equal value. School children will be admitted free of charge. 1 As a curtain raiser, the Manawatu and Wanganui Third Grade representatives will Be staged and the match should be more than a fitting opener. The public are invited to attend early to see this fine curtainraiser, which has been,especially selected for the occasion. WANGANUI PUNT FOUND ON FOXTON BEACH. OTHER GEAR BELIEVED TO BE . NEAR LEVIN. For some time the Wanganui Harbour Board have been supplying local bodies with gravel of a very high grade, dredged from the bed of the river on the northern side of the Dublin street bridge, but during the recent floods their plant suffered rather severely. A punt, which broke away from its moorings, has been discovered in gpod condition on the beach at Foxton Heads. Tiie remainder of the gear, which was utilised for dredging metal from the river bed, is believed to be stranded on the coast .in the vicinity of the Levin beach.

The City Engineer (Mr N. Orofton Stavelev)-—went to Foxton on .Saturday to" inspect the punt, and found it undamaged by the buffeting it. must have received' while being carried down the coast by the strong drift. ■

The dredge has on several occasions been the sport of flood waters, and only recently it was carried down stream. Repairs were effected and the gear was recommissioned, the dredge being moored out in the stream instead of, as formerly, -being stationary. It is doubtful whether the expense of the conveyance of the dredge hack to Wanganui on this occasion will justify its reconstruction. 1

The remarkable part about the disappearance of the equipment is that its carrying a,way passed unnoticed, and it got safely under, the Town Bridge without fouling the cylinders. It is fortunate that, on its journey down the coast the dredge was not encountered by any vessels.