ROWING IN NEW ZEALAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 498, 30 October 1928, Page 14

ROWING IN NEW ZEALAND

ASSOCIATION’S REPORT SATISFACTORY FINANCE A satisfactory financial situation is revealed in the report to be presented at the 41st annual meeting of the New _ Zealand Amateur Rowing Association at Wellington this evening. Subscriptions received for the year total £129 18s, which sum is in excess of that received last year (£75 3s), owing to an increase in levy from Is to 2s. Although a monetary increase, the amount actually represents a decrease in ithe number of active paying members from 1,503 to 1,299. Receipts, including interest, amount to £241 10s, and expenditure £l6O 0s 9d. Assets, including. £I,BOO on deposit, and cash in bank and on hand, £215, 17s 9d, amount to £2,226 17s 9d, with no liabilities. The number of affiliated clubs was 40, two less than the preceding year, as Whakatane and Dargaville had withdrawn. Reference is made to an invitation, which will be considered at the meeting, for Dominion crews to visit Western Australia and Sydney during the season. The council regretted that the New South Wales’ Association was unable to send over a crew last season, but hoped to receive a visit from them in the near future, though the prospects did not appear bright. Regret is expressed that it was impossible to send a New Zealand eight to the Olympic Games, the failure being attributed to the want of enthusiasm and assistance from the members of amateur sports organisations.

“The method of selection of representatives to be sent to the Games is wrong,” continues the report, “and, unless the Olympic rules are amended, it is possible, and in fact probable, that representatives of one sport may again be selected, and another sport, which has a greater prospect of bringing honours to the Dominion, shut out. The practice of a governing body of any one sport giving a donation to the Olympic fund, conditional on their nominees being sent forward to the Games, is one that should be discouraged, and one that is not calculated to give New Zealand or its sporting public the best representation and reasonable prospect of success. Neither should the representatives of sports bodies finally recommend the order of preference.”