FOOTBALL NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10072, 18 June 1910, Page 3

FOOTBALL NOTES.

By "Half Back." The Otago representative team will go on tout ;'••.'< <i ead of August, and w a L Aat matches against Cantr»t Ai y, ... Wellington, Taranaki, anrt •>> < libly Wairarapa. Moana Para . the champion xVlaur. w-ostler u-. .ue Dominion, who played £jV Red Star seniors last year, is a member of the Maori football team touring the Commonwealth. Should time permit, he intends challenging some of Australia's leading wrestlers. E. Fisher, who played five-eiehtns for Masterton third class team last year and for Masterton janior3 this year, is at present playing half for the Waipukurau seniors in the Hunter Shield, competition. He is playing particularly well in that position. The British team t3uring South Africa are reported to have the following guarantees:—Transvaal, six matches, £1,200; Western Provinces six matches, £1,000; Griqualand West, four matches, £600; Eastern Provinces, three matches, £SOO. From a financial point of view the r tour should be a success.

An independent scheme of insuring its players has been adopted hy the Clifton Club, New Plymouth. Before taking part in a match each seDior pays to the insurance fund a hsililng, which covers" him for the match. Should he be injured during the match the club will pay him £1 per week, whilst incapacitated, for ten weeks, but if he fails to pay the shilling the club is free from liability. In the case of junior players the fee ia 63 per match, and the benefit is 10s per week for ten weeks. "Amateumism is a matter of taking the coin slyly from under the table. Professionalism is a matter of taking it from on top without any false shame, and within view of a'.l. Which is the most henest?" was the very embarrassing question -■-to amateurs, anyway—asked by a speaker of the British League football team in Sydney recently.

The following question was recently submitted, to the English Kugby Union:—Question: An attacking eide scrummages on their opponents' five-yard line, the ball is heeled out to the attacking side; they have every opportunity of scoring, but the opposing half gets deliberately offside. What should the referee do? Answer: If in the referee's opinion a try would undoubtedly have been scored, a try should be given; otherwise a free kick should be awarded.

Casey is playing in Dunedin again this season, but the All-Black hooker is not the player of a season or two ago. He has not lost his dash so much as his art of hooking. At the last meeting of the . New Zealand Football Association the Auckland association wrote favourng the proposed New South Wales tour in 1911, and guaranteed £175 towards the expenses. It was decided to communicate with other New Zealand associations before open-

i ig negotiations with the New South Wales Association. The Nelson College team, which r cently created a world's record by scoring 179 points in two consecutive matches, has been reclassified by the Nelson Rugby Hnior, and now plays in the senior grade. Rugby game is getting well established in Melbourne, and the Victorian Union's competitions have started very satisfactory. Advices to hand from independent sources in Air erica point to the com- 1 ing American teatf is liksly to st rpris2 Australians by their strength and ability en the Rugby field. The standard of local football, according to a Dunedin writer, has improved vastly during the past two weeks, and there is a propseet of Otago being well represented in interprovincial matches. The forward play is ta«ing on some semblance of what it used to be when football was } football in Dunedin, and with the introduction of one or two new play ers the backs are now more than passing fair.