GISBORNE SENDS MANY GIFTS TO TOM HEENEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 369, 1 June 1928, Page 16

GISBORNE SENDS MANY GIFTS TO TOM HEENEY

CARCASE OF PRIME LAMB BROTHERS BEAR MESSAGES (Special to THE SUN) GISBORNE, To-day. If Tom Heeney fails to win the championship bout on July 26 it will not be the fault of his home town, Gisborne. A picked carcase of Poverty Bay’s famous lamb has been dispatched to him in order that he may train “on the finest possible foundation,” as the donors put it. Maoris of the district have secured for him an historic Karowal, or cloak of flax fibre, which they hope he will wear on entering the ring. The latter article together with other gifts and letters of encouragement and congratulation and innumerable verbal messages, are being conveyed by his three brothers, who arrived in Auckland this afternoon to join the Aorangi en route to New York to witness Tom Keeney’s supreme effort. Before leaving Gisborne the three Heeneys were deluged with farewells, and messages for the popular brother. Letters to Tom include ones from Mr. W. D. Lynsar, M.P., Mr. D. W. Coleman, Mayor of Gisborne, and the Gisborne Boxing Association, all praising his past efforts and wishing him equal success in the future. The carcase of lamb was specially selected from the famous Turihau station, and is being shipped direct to New York by the Rarangi which by a strange coincidence was the vessel on which Tom returned to New Zealand from war service, 10 years ago. The Karowai was formerly the property of the late Ruahuia Tawhiwhi, one of the leaders of the Ngatiporou tribe, and was secured by Lady Carroll as a gift for Heeney.