PLAYERS SUSPETED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 779, 27 September 1929, Page 6

PLAYERS SUSPETED

MAORIS WHO WENT TO A TANGI ONE-TEAR PENALTY XFrom Our Otort Correspondent) TE KUTTI, Today. As the outcome of an unauthorised trip to Otewa by several members of the Nehenehenui Football Club, and Their failure to field a team against Flo Pio on a recent Saturday at Te Kuiti, seven Maori members were disqualified for 12 months at a meeting of th© M&niapoto Rugby Union. These were: Karu Manawaiti, Rangi Roberts. Jimmy James, Willi© lietet, Ngatai and B. Anderson. It was stated that the offenders had been induced by their elders to attend a tangi at Otewa, but investigation revealed that the death did not occur until the day after the Maoris had played a football match at Otewa. They liad been warned against going. As it was not their first offence in this respect, the chairman said the union would be lacking in its duty both to the Pio Pio players and to the public who supported the game if it did not take a serious view of th© offence. The driver of the lorry on which the party travelled, Warahi Teime, was warned off all grounds for a period of 12 months. The effect of the disqualification will be that the players cannot play any match under the auspices of the New Zealand Rugby Union for a year.