FOOTBALL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 93, 22 April 1915, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

FOOTBALL ANA THE WAR. PIJK PIIESS ASSOCIATION. Auckland, April 22. Discussing the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s criticism of the New Zealand Rugby League’s proposal to send a team to Australia, Mr Carlaw (president of New Zealand Council), sak; the tour had not been definitely arranged. An invitation had been received from the New South Wales League to send a team in June, *aud the New Zealand Council decided that the unsettled conditions resulting from the war were too pronounced for the invitation to be accepted outright. The New South Wales League was asked to make the invitation good at a later stage 'of the season. No further action would be taken until a reply to that inquiry had been received. As regards the ethics of the matter, it was essential that large numbers of men remain in isolated countries like New Zealand to maintain defence and industry, and included in them v was a fair proportion of footballers. \\ by, he asked, should they be debarred from using the sporting fields for muscular development? He would like to ask the critics what they had to say about the continuation of Horse-racing during the Avar. Mr Sheehan (chairman of the Rugby League), said he was of the opinion that body was totally averse to sending teams out of the Dominion at the present time. It was not our turn to visit Australia, and Now South Wales and Queensland were expected to come bore first. He did not think this would be done while the war conditions- were so complicated.