WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1921, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE SPRINGBOKS. WORTHY OPPONENTS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. i 9. The South African footballers are returning home without the prize lor which they came, the fortune of the game having conspired with the tenacity of the holders to deprive them of the consummation of their high ambition, but they are taking back with them the warm regard of a community that loves clean sport and its strenuous exponents. Players from no other part of 1 the Empire, have done better, and it is doubtful if any have done quite so well. They not only have given a splendid exhibition of football, but they also have' provided an admirable demonstration oi the best traditions of the game, on and off the field. Their record stands to show the quality of their play and their popularity with* the public to prove the scrupulous fairness of their methods. Just what the measure of their ill-luck may have been it is difficult to Bay, but it is. certain they were unfortunate in having to play two of the “tests” on sodden ground, under conditions to which they were wholly unaccustomed, and still more unfortunate in never having been able, owing to injuries, to put their strogest team in the field.

LESSONS OF THE TOUR. In these circumstances it will not be conceding too much to the visitor}? to eay that the drawn game on Saturday represented very fairly the relative strength of the best football in South Africa and the best football in New Zealand to-day. In rhe early part of the game, for rhe first ten minutes or so after the kick-off. the AU Blacks looked as if their serious eight or nine days’ training’ was going to enable them to establish a definite superiority, but. when the Springboks had adapted themselves to the slush and mud they had none the worse of the play, and seemed to be rather more than holding their own at half time. In the second spell the advantage drifted firet one way and then the other, but, in the last ten minutes the All Blacks again asserted themselves, and a little luck would have enabled them to score. But a draw was the appropriate conclusion to such a contest, and a proper distribution of the honors. If New Zealand football is as good to-day as it. was fifteen years ago. then South Africa hac made enormous strides in the inter-

THE SESSION. Members of both Houses are arriving for the session, which opens on Thursday next, and the lobbies, though still occupied by an army of carpenters, plumbers, glaziers, furnishers and mi«' cellaneous workers, are beginning to shelter little group* of political gossipers. It would seem from the attitude of Ministers that no great haste will be made with the preliminary proceedings, and that the Address-ln-Reply may hold the floor of the House long enough to enable Mr. Massey to speak his piece to the country through this medium. The Governor’s Speech is likely to be even more uninformative and non-com-mittal tlujp usqal, none of the J’ripm Minister’s colleagues haying shown any disposition la plunge into controversial subjects during the afcsepce of their chief; but thl#, of course, need not prevent members exploiting 'he whole field of pelites, pMt t presuiit and future. A

new peril towards loquacity is provided by the general recognition of the inevitability of the session running over the Christmas holidays. Having to remain in Wellington to assist in the transaction of an enormous amount of Government business, the talkative member may be trusted to take toll of necessity by making himself frequently heard. FREZING COMPANIES AND FARMERS. Last week Mr. A. D. McLeod, the member for Wairarapa, wrote to the Dominion, recounting some of the stories in circulation concerning .the treatment of the farmers by the freezing companies. The most striking of them wan that the companies had fixed prices at a high level early in tIT? season to suit the big men, and then had reduced them io « much lower level when the small men were ready to send in their stock. The facts of the case, as the local companies have now clearly demonstrated, show the preference was just the other way about. The season was five or six weeks late in opening, owing to labor troubles, and when the factories actually got to work, the big owners were induced to withhold their fut wethers till the farmers’ lots of lambs eonld be handled. The evidence to tide effect is quite irrefutable. Mr. McLeod did not credit this story, nor the others that were being spread about by interested people, and as it turns out he has done the companies a good service by giving them an opportunity to disprove the principal fable.