CLERICS AND SPORTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 123, 15 November 1911, Page 5

CLERICS AND SPORTS.

A SPIRITED PROTEST. By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, .Last Night. Considerable surprise is felt in loeal sports circles regarding what is considered to be the extraordinary manifesto issued by the Auckland Ministers' Association concerning the New Zealand Sports Protection League. The manifesto was brought under the notice of Mr. A. Boyle, president of the local branch of the league, by a Press reporter to-day, and Mr. Boyle was quite amazed at the violence and* virulence of the attack made, an attack which was based on entirely wrong premises. "The sole object of the league," he declared, "is to protect and purify sport. It is absolutely untrue to say that we are fighting for the restitution of the bookmaker, or that we desire the extension of the totalisator, or that we would multiply the number of racing days in the year. If the secretary of the northern branch caused the ministers to .believe what they seem to believe in their manifesto, then he was altogether exceeding his duties and claiming for the league objects which it does not profess, and has no need to profess. The league has nothing whatever to do with the claims attributed to it by the Auckland ministers. The leagu* does not stand foe the bookmaker nor for an increase in the days of racing, nor for the extension of the totalisator, nor for the liquor interests. It has nothing to do with any of these. The league, moreover, is against all public exhibitions of sport on Sundays but it believes that each individual has the right to spend part of the hours of Sunday m harmless amusement, provided that by doing so he gives no offence to the community in general."