THE FOOTBALL UNION AND THE VOLUNTEERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 106, 7 May 1902, Page 2

THE FOOTBALL UNION AND THE VOLUNTEERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I was extremely surprised to see in this morning's issue under the heading of " Volunteer News " an attack on the Taranaki Rugby (Jnion for having refused the request of the volunteer authorities that no football fixtures should be arranged for June 3rd, Prince of Wales birthday. The attack is altogether uncalled for, and as a member of the Management Committee of the Union I feel bound to reply to it. When Adjutant Taunton's lot,tor was read at th» Union meeting it was rightly pointed out that the strength of the Taranaki Battalion wde between 400 and 600 str'ong, and that out of this number there were at the very outside only about SO members who were likely to be chosen in football teims for that day. The parade is, 1 understand, to be held in an-out-of-the-way place—somewhere in th« vicinity of Ngaire—and in view of th( football fixtures no amusement haf been provided far the public in New Plymouth or Stratford, nor, so far as 1 am aware, in any of the other centre: in Taranaki. Your correspondent thinks that for the sake of getting these 30 men to the parade we ehoulc punish the whole of the footballing public in Taranaki by leaving b blanl on the day in question. Had we ac ctded to the request Princa of Wale* birthday would indeed have been slow day for tbe greater portion of thi general public. Again, football club ara always able to get their teams aws;

. best on holidays, and it is our duty as ' the Management Committee to got ( 1 over as much travelling on those days ( aa possible. The nsssrtion that there ] 1 is an unfriendly spirit on the part of, I the Union is absolutely incorrect. In ; deciding to adhere to the fixture the j > committee were actuated by a desire to . " do the greaW; good to the greatest J number, and if it could have been 1 shown that the fixture would have in 3 any way imperilled the success of the > parade, we should have stood aside. 1 We did so last year, when by request J of several officers of volunteer conoi panies we postponed our fixtures for ' six weeks during the visit of the Duk«

of York, so as not to interfere with any volunteer who wished to go with his company to Wellington, result* proved by doing so we practically killed football in Taranaki for that year. Your correspondent's assertion that the fixtures are a pure matter of financial gain is worthy of the vary narrowminded view he takes of the whole question. Anyone connected with football in Taranaki knows that there is no financial gain about it, and also what an expensive luxury it is to those following it up, so that I pass over this portion of his letter with the contempt it deserves. In conclusion, I say emphatically that if there is any unfriendliness between the Union and

the volunteer authorities it is not on the part of the Union. We have worked in harmony in the past", and hope to do so in the future; but it is men like your correspondent who setm to do their bast to causa feeling where there is none. I reiterate that in deciding to hold the matches on Prince of Wales birthday we were actuated by the purest motives, and leave ifc to the public in general as to whether we have not made the wiser choice.— Yours, etc., F. T. Bellbingek.