Professional athletics once held sway in New Zealand and produced several famous “pedestrians”, the best known being F. S. Hewitt, who was long credited with a world professional 880 yd record of 1 min 53·5 sec in 1871–75 years before a New Zealand amateur could run as fast. This performance was regarded with amusement by those “in the know”, for the surveyor's chain which was used to measure the distance had been tampered with. Such abuses, added to those inherent or potential in betting practices, could lead only to one result. Today there is a small following for professional athletics, mainly in the South Island, but even the best athletes are scarcely up to provincial amateur class.

Amateur athletics in New Zealand today are controlled by the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, which has nine constituent centres from Northland to Southland, over 250 affiliated clubs, and over 6,000 registered athletes. The association conducts annual New Zealand championships for men, women, and junior (under 19) athletes. Some of the women's championships date back to 1926 and the rest, with the junior championships, to 1939. The N.Z.A.A.A. recognises New Zealand (that is, “open”) records and New Zealand resident records for all three grades. Athletic teams for the Olympic and Empire Games (the former being officially the world championships) are chosen on the recommendation of two selectors, one in each island, and put forward to the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association, to which the N.Z.A.A.A. is affiliated, for final selection of the New Zealand team. Until 1928 the N.Z.A.A.A. was affiliated to the now defunct Amateur Athletic Union of Australia and New Zealand, and until the early thirties also controlled amateur cycling in the Dominion. Perhaps the outstanding individuals in its history have been the late R. W. McVilly, M.V.O., its president from 1925 to 1940; A. Urquhart, a life member and former president who is one of only two New Zealanders to have served on a committee of the I.A.A.F.; H. L. Towers, M.B.E., also a life member and former president, who was the force behind the inauguration of the juniors' and women's championships; and H. I. Austad, M.B.E., possibly New Zealand's outstanding sporting official, with a record of life member and former president, member of the management committee for 40 years and its chairman for 34, and life member of the N.Z.O.B.E.G.A., on which he has served for 37 years, 15 years as chairman and four as president.

Although running, jumping, and throwing missiles have been among man's most natural–and necessary–activities since prehistoric times, the modern sport of track and field athletics is surprisingly young, a fact which has enabled New Zealand to be one of the pioneering countries in this sphere. The world's first properly organised athletic meeting was held in England in 1849, and the first national championships, again in England, were in 1866. New Zealand was not far behind, our first championships being held in 1888. A year earlier had been founded the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association which today shares with the Czechoslovak Association the honour of being the oldest national body in over 100 countries affiliated to the International Amateur Athletic Federation. The oldest club extant in New Zealand is the Wellington A.A.C., which dates from 1875, 25 years after the foundation of the first club in the world, Exeter College A.C., Oxford University. In 1935 the president of that club was our Olympic champion and Rhodes Scholar, J. E. Lovelock, who thus forged another link in the chain of New Zealand's association with the earliest days of modern athletics.

To those interested in the high development of astronomy in New Zealand, there have been two tragic losses. In 1920 a proposal was made by Yale University Observatory to establish a large photographic telescope in Central Otago for the purpose of making photographic zone catalogues of the heavens. Apparently New Zealand was not able to rise adequately to the situation with the necessary aid, and the instrument went instead to South Africa. A few years earlier it had been anticipated that Thomas Cawthron would leave a bequest for the establishment of a solar observatory in Nelson. It appears that the necessary papers had not been signed before Cawthron's death, and instead the present Cawthron Institute came into being.

In 1896 Charles Rooking Carter, a pioneer of some prominence in the Wellington and Wairarapa districts, died, bequeathing a sum of about £2,000 for the establishment of an astronomical observatory in or near the city of Wellington, for the public use and benefit. The Carter Observatory Act, 1938, established a board for the purpose of using this money with the accrued interest to put into effect Carter's wishes. With annual grants from the New Zealand Government and the Wellington City Council, the Carter Observatory thus came into being in 1939, with Murray Geddes as its first director.

Geddes had had high prominence as an amateur astronomer in the fields of sunspots, variable stars, the aurora, meteors, and in the discovery of a comet. Unfortunately he died in 1944 while on active service with the Royal Navy, and was succeeded by I. L. Thomsen. Previous to the commencement of the Carter Observatory, Thomsen had worked in the time-service observatory, then known as the Dominion Observatory.

The work of the Carter Observatory is divided into educational and research activities. Upon the educational side are public lectures and telescope demonstrations, as well as the providing of general information to amateurs and the public as required.

With limited apparatus and staff, the observatory has never been able to develop work comparable to that of large overseas observatories. But work of international value has been done on sunspots, chromospheric flares, eclipses, occultations, and comets. Work is developing on double star measurements and stellar photography. Following on the original work commenced by Geddes, the observatory completed from 1930 to 1958 the first and longest catalogue of visual observations of the aurora australis ever made . This project was completed by valuable aid, in its later stage, from the Air Force Cambridge Research Centre, United States of America.

Although the Carter Observatory is by its origins a local one, and the first professional institution of its kind in the country, it nevertheless has on some occasions to assume a national aspect in the provision of authoritative or accurate information. Astronomical instruction in its fullest aspect is at present not a function of universities in New Zealand, although there has been a growing interest in the physics and mathematical departments. In particular mention must be made of radar observations of meteors undertaken by the physics department of the Canterbury University. Though aimed principally at studies of the ionosphere, these observations are valuable by-products of the subject of meteoric astronomy in the southern hemisphere.

Present-day astronomy is clamouring for more large observatories in the southern hemisphere. While in the past there has always been an imbalance between the two hemispheres, today the situation is scientifically desperate. Large instruments capable of accurately measuring the brightnesses of faint stars, securing spectrograms, and making photographic surveys are now required. By virtue of its situation both in latitude and in longitude, New Zealand can play an important part in astronomical research if a site with suitable atmospheric conditions can be found. It so happens that an American institution is now making such a search. If the quest is successful, a new age will open for New Zealand astronomy.

At the time of writing (1964) an agreement has been reached between the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, for the establishment of an observatory on Mount John at Tekapo, South Island, to be known as the Mount John University Observatory. This site was chosen after intensive tests carried out by F. M. Bateson who has been appointed Astronomer in Charge. By now some instruments are ready for operation and very soon there will be an 18-in.-long focus refractor and a 39-in. reflector established. Such an observatory will be used by astronomers of international standing, and this impact on the science of astronomy in New Zealand may well be expected to be the greatest in its history.

by Ivan Leslie Thomsen, F.R.A.S.(LOND.), Director, Carter Observatory, Wellington.

Although individuals become prominent in their own right, the general interest in astronomy throughout the community has resulted in the formation of many astronomical societies. Local branches of the Royal Society at Wellington, Nelson, and Dunedin have their astronomical sections. Individual societies have been formed at Auckland, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Hawera, Palmerston North, and Christchurch. In most cases observatories have been built to which the public are invited. Indeed, on the whole, the public has been given exceedingly good attention by the enthusiastic members of these societies. There are three small planetaria at Auckland, Napier, and Christchurch.

The New Zealand Astronomical Society was formed in 1920 with C. E. Adams as president, to act as a national organisation which aimed at a development a little above that of many of the local societies. In 1946 this became the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, and its main functions have been the publication of the journal Southern Stars, and the organisation of observing groups for specialised studies where this has been found possible. The variable star section under F. M. Bateson has attained international recognition. The headquarters of the society are at present at the Carter Observatory Wellington.

No account of New Zealand astronomy would be complete without mention of expeditions organised for solar eclipse observations. Adams represented New Zealand on the Lick Observatory expedition to Australia in 1922, and he himself led an expedition to Niuafaou in 1930. C. B. Michie of Kaitaia organised an expedition to Canton Island in 1937, and I. L. Thomsen led a small expedition to Atafu, in the Tokelau Islands, in 1957. Successful corona photographs were obtained on all occasions. In addition, the following annular eclipses were observed from New Zealand itself in 1925 (Adams) and in 1936 (Michie and Thomsen). Complete accounts of observations of the total eclipse of the sun seen from New Zealand on 9 September 1885 are to be found in the reports of the Lands and Survey Department.

Fields of astronomy other than those already considered were left entirely to the amateur astronomer prior to 1939, when the Carter Observatory Board was established by Act of Parliament. The principal exception was the valuable contribution made to the calculation of cometary orbits and ephemerides by C. E. Adams. Methods developed by him are now standard practice and have even found their way quietly into artificial satellite orbit theory. In general, he was well ahead of his time in the then whole field of astronomical calculation, and undoubtedly strongly influenced L. J. Comrie, a New Zealander later destined to be a superintendent of H.M. Nautical Almanac Office, London.

In the realm of theory there has never been any personality in the country to equal A. C. Gifford (1861–1948). Intrigued by an idea of Professor A. W. Bickerton that novae were produced by the grazing impact of two stars, he spent the greater part of his life developing such a theory. Present-day knowledge finds this theory inadequate, but his work on the impact of meteors on the lunar surface as the cause of lunar craters has had a powerful influence right up to the present time. His intense enthusiasm as a science teacher and amateur astronomer inspired all those who came directly or indirectly under his influence.

There have been so many keen amateur observers that to select the most outstanding is by no means easy. In terms of highly significant contributions to the science, John Grigg (1838–1920), J. T. Ward (1861–1927), R. A. McIntosh (1904– ), and Albert F. Jones (1920– ) are well worthy of consideration. Grigg completed a small but extremely well designed observatory at the rear of his music warehouse at Thames in 1884. Among his activities he was an ardent observer of comets and discovered several. At a time when communications were difficult he also performed the remarkable feat of computing orbits and ephemerides. Ward is mostly remembered for the enormous number of telescopes and optical components constructed by him, as well as for the establishment of the Wanganui Observatory housing a fine 9½ in. refractor. In addition, however, he is the only person in New Zealand who carried out with considerable success a survey for the discovery of southern double stars. McIntosh in Auckland pioneered the study of visual meteors in the southern hemisphere, and provided sound initial knowledge on radiants. One of his major works was the study of the relationship between the Eta Aquarid meteors and Halley's Comet. Jones in Timaru, who has been active for the last 20 years, is probably the most prolific visual observer of long period variable stars that the world has ever known. In addition, he has become the most famous visual observer of the physical characteristics of comets in the southern hemisphere.

Daily life in the early days of the colony did not require high accuracy of timekeeping, and it appears that each district kept its own approximate local mean solar time. Development of coastal shipping, trans-Tasman steam services, railways, and the electric telegraph soon showed the necessity of some kind of uniform time system for the country, if confusion was to be avoided. On the recommendations of Sir James Hector, the House of Representatives resolved that the mean time for the colony should be 11½ hours in advance of Greenwich mean time as from 2 November 1868. It is interesting to note that not long afterwards discussions arose as to whether or not it would be better to make this time difference exactly 12 hours. After the vicissitudes of “summer time” experiments, the standard time at present is in fact 12 hours ahead of Greenwich, as defined by the Standard Time Act of 1945.

Time and longitude are two completely interwoven quantities both for the navigator and for the surveyor; and it was soon appreciated that not only was it necessary to have a uniform time system for the young colony but also that the longitude must be known as accurately as possible. While fixing the location of the country accurately on charts, longitude relates its time to that of the prime meridian of Greenwich. It was, therefore, natural that much effort was expended in attempting to determine the longitude of Wellington, which from 1870 was the location of a time observatory.

Before the advent of radio or submarine cables, longitudes were determined whenever possible by the transport of chronometers between a known and an unknown position. Thus the Sydney-Wellington longitude difference became the subject of intensive study. The first attempt of this kind was made by the survey ships HMS Acheron (see Ships, Famous), and HMS Pandora from 1848 to 1854. There follows a long history of various repeated attempts to check and improve the values obtained, mostly by Lands and Survey Department officers. The devotion and interest of these men are an inspiration to anyone interested in this type of work. Completion of the trans-Pacific cable in 1902 enabled Dr Otto Klotz of Canada to bring this period to a close. Since then, three other determinations have been made, in 1926, 1931, and 1957, using radio time signals. In these years New Zealand participated in an international campaign for longitude determinations covering the entire world.

Despite the accepted necessity for a time service, particularly in a period when radio either did not exist or was in a very new state, there was no full professional time-service observatory until 1912, when the late C. E. Adams was appointed Government Astronomer. Previously the Ven. Archdeacon Stock, followed by Thomas King, a business accountant, made transit observations virtually in their spare time. With the retirement of Adams in 1936, officers in charge of the time observatory have not been given the title of Government or Dominion Astronomer.

By 1914 radio time signals, originating from the world's large observatories, began to make their appearance, and in the course of time it seemed unnecessary to make actual astronomical observations for the national time service. While from a severely practical point of view this might still be the case, scientific advances of the present day have indicated the necessity of resuming precision star observations for, among other things, the study of the finer motions of the earth. Stimulated by the International Geophysical Year (1957–58), the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research installed the most up-to-date instrument available, a Danjon astrolabe, for this purpose. This instrument, combined with a quartz-clock, means that the timeservice observatory is now well prepared to commence valuable observations of the highest international standard in this field.

With the absence of any form of national observatory in the true sense of the word, the history of astronomy in New Zealand is largely that of amateur endeavour. Many personalities have appeared on the scene; some have been prominent in a colourful manner while others have given long and serious devotion to an absorbing hobby. Among the general public there has always been an atmosphere of interest in astronomy, and at present it is probably as high as anywhere else in the world. Lack of national support, however, has meant that New Zealand has not been able to make any major contributions to the science of astronomy, which on present international standards is completely undeveloped.

Early maritime explorers appear to have been versed to an astonishing degree in astronomical knowledge as applied to the art of navigation. They could well be considered as our first astronomers. Judging from the small piece of coastline charted by Abel Tasman in 1642–43, the latitudes of recognisable features are surprisingly accurate, considering the equipment and conditions under which he worked. So accurate was the work of Captain James Cook on his expeditions in 1769 and 1772 that many of his charts are still the basis for some of our modern ones.

The first astronomical observatories were established by Cook's expeditions at Motuara Island in Queen Charlotte Sound, and at Astronomer Point, Pickersgill Harbour, in Dusky Sound. At these places, every known method then in use for determining latitude and longitude was pressed into service. Even that of timing the phenomena of Jupiter's satellites was used. For many years, the location of the Dusky Sound observatory provided the prime meridian and origin of surveys for New Zealand.

In a mountainous, heavily forested virgin country requiring urgent detailed surveys for development, astronomical observations for positions and general mapping were essential. Like the marine hydrographer, the land surveyor became an adept at astronomical practice. The early records of the Lands and Survey Department clearly show that these men were not only skilful in applying astronomical knowledge for the immediate practical purpose in hand, but were also captivated by the general interest of the subject. Observations are recorded of transits of Venus and an eclipse of the sun. Contributions were made to the theory and practice of the adjustment of observations, methods of observation, astronomical refraction, and other subjects. These were our first real astronomers. In addition to the many contributions by the officers of the Lands and Survey Department, every Surveyor-General has either made learned studies or has influenced work along these directions.

This phase of work in the survey of New Zealand has now been completed, and accurate astronomical observations for position are made only occasionally by the Hydrographic Department of the Royal New Zealand Navy on Pacific islands.

(1871–1951).

Agricultural chemist and botanist, Hector medallist, Royal Society of New Zealand.

A new biography of Aston, Bernard Cracroft appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

B. C. Aston was born at Beckenham, Kent, son of Murray Aston, of a family well known in the Home Counties. Coming to New Zealand as a boy he attended Christchurch Boys' High School, Dunedin Technical College, and Otago University. He did not take a degree, but under Professor Black's teaching and influence was appointed chemist to a cement company; later, consulting analyst to the Government in Dunedin, and finally in 1899 the first chemist to the Department of Agriculture. Beginning in Wellington, practically single handed, Aston built up a service laboratory which eventually covered a wide field of analytical work. Meanwhile with Professor Easterfield of Victoria University College, he began researches into the active principles in several poisonous native plants in relation to stock ailments. Later he turned his attention to soils, fertilisers, and to field experiments, and his annual reports contain a wealth of data. He also inaugurated testing laboratories for export butter, and milling and baking tests for wheat.

One of Aston's most notable investigations was into “bush sickness”, a disease that rendered stockraising in many areas of pumice soils difficult, if not impossible. He discovered a cure for and the preventive of the disease in limonite, a natural oxide of iron. This led him to think that the cause of the disease was a soil deficiency of iron, though later it was shown that the actual deficiency was cobalt which the limonite contained as a minor element in greater or less degree. In 1926 Aston, visiting Britain, presented a paper on “Bush sickness” to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and, as a consequence, the Empire Marketing Board, influenced by Sir John Orr who regarded Aston's work highly, subsidised a programme of investigations in New Zealand into minerals in pastures in relation to stock nutrition. The reports (unpublished) contain a wealth of data for reference. Aston's work in this field may fairly be regarded as the starting point of the immense volume of modern research into soil micronutrients .

Much of the early field work in botany and zoology in New Zealand was done by enthusiastic amateurs without benefit of university training in the subjects. Aston illustrates the point. By profession a chemist, he was also a botanist and an active collector of plants, often in regions unexplored before his excursions. In a search for plants, he explored many parts of Otago and Southland in his early years. Coming to Wellington he made many ascents of peaks in the Tararuas and was among the first to traverse that range. In 1916, with J. A. Thomson, H. Hamilton, and A. F. O'Donoghue, he scaled Tapuaenuku (9,465 ft) in the Kaikouras. Altogether he made six excursions into the Ruahine-Kaimanawa Mountains. Perhaps his most interesting excursion was that in which, with R. A. Wilson and F. K. Hutchinson, he attempted to follow the route across the Ruahine Range from Waipawa to the Rangitikei River that Colenso travelled over six times between 1847 and 1852. Aston was also a member of the expedition to the sub-Antarctic Is. (q.v.) organised by the Canterbury Philosophical Institute in 1907. He always described his recreations as plant exploration and growing, and he is commemorated in the names of species belonging to several genera of native plants.

Aston was a member of the New Zealand Institute and the Royal Society of New Zealand for 55 years, and he contributed many papers to the Transactions. He was president of the Wellington branch, secretary of the New Zealand Institute, 1909–31, one of the 20 original fellows of the institute, and president in 1926–27. He was created C.B.E. in 1948. He died, unmarried, on31 May 1951.

by Leonard John Wild, C.B.E., M.A., B.SC.(HON.), D.SC., formerly Pro-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, Otaki.

• Evening Post, 1 Jun 1951 (Obit).

Beginnings

The future of the association football code in New Zealand is probably easier to forecast than its beginnings are to define.

It was inevitable that settlers and crews of ships trading to the colony should play some sort of football during leisure hours, but soccer began to be organised as a sport only in the eighties of the last century. A Reverend J. S. Hill has been credited with starting the game in this country. The Northern Association Football Club of Dunedin came into being on 11 April 1888, and this club's claim to be “the oldest association football club in Australia and New Zealand” has always been disputed by North Shore, which dates its foundation to 1886. But a news item in the New Zealand Times of 8 July 1891, date lined Auckland, 7 July, reads: “It is in contemplation to start an Association football club”. It is possible, of course, that this could have referred to discussions which preceded the formation of the Auckland Football Association in 1894.

It is beyond dispute that by 1890 soccer was well enough organised for associations to form in Wellington and Otago and for the New Zealand Football Association to have been established to administer the game on a national basis. On 8 July 1903 three Christchurch clubs formed the Canterbury Football Association, but it is on record that games had been played in the province since 1890.

The press of those days (which included many newspapers no longer in existence–the Mail, Field, Globe, and Umpire are a random few) devoted considerable space to the code's development. It was noted that “the Association game of football seems to be catching on in Auckland”; “Association football, as we notice, has opened in Dunedin … from what we hear more enthusiasm is manifested towards the game than the promoters expected”; “Association football is going ahead in Wellington … the Association game is not nearly so rough as the Rugby, and it also possesses other advantages over the latter.” But a Canterbury journal of the nineties made no bones about it. It was adamant that no matter how strongly entrenched “the Association branch” became, it would never displace rugby in the “affections” of the local population.

This comment promotes speculation as to why, in a country settled mainly by people from Britain, the oval-ball code should have so quickly and decisively established itself as the popular winter sport. The reason may perhaps be found in the fact that persons of influence in the young colony, including school teachers, probably had educational backgrounds of the great public schools in England. Rugby was (and to a lesser extent today still is) the fashionable winter sport. The association game was the opiate of the masses of the unwashed, the cloth-cap and muffler brigade. Though “the quality” played association–Old Etonian Lord Kinnaird, Sir Francis Marindin, and Old Harrovian C. W. Alcock were strong advocates of the round-ball code–the advent of professionalism in Britain put soccer beyond the pale. This did not prevent Alcock spiritedly defending the principle of payment for players: “I object to the argument that it is immoral to work for a living, and I cannot see why men should not, with that object, labour at football as at cricket.” The attitude that it was “immoral to work for a living”, so widely held in the nineteenth century, could have reacted favourably to rugby's cause in early New Zealand.

The journalistic opinion that the association game was “not nearly so rough as Rugby” received a check in September 1891. Thirty-one-year-old Thomas M. Sibbin was killed while playing soccer at Potter's Paddock in Epsom, Auckland. The Herald of 7 September devoted more than half a column to the accident. It reported that “it appears that the players of the Association branch of the game, which has recently been revived here, met at Potter's Ground for a practice, and a good number turned up, including many old Rugby players who, like Mr. Sibbin, had forsaken that style for the presumably milder and less dangerous form of Association football.” It added: “For many years he (Mr Sibbin) was an ardent exponent of Rugby football, and represented the province in 1882 against New South Wales.”

The fatality aroused a storm of protest against football, though nowhere in the indictments can be found any differentiation between rugby and association.

Administration

Though the newspapers of the nineties record games played between the provinces, sparse and difficult communications made it necessary to administer soccer on a regional basis. It was quite impossible in nineteenth-century New Zealand to establish a league similar to that which had been formed in England in 1888, with teams from all over the country competing on a home-and-away programme. A journey between Wellington and Auckland in those days assumed the proportions of a major safari and, lacking the revenue available to professional soccer in Britain, New Zealand planned its soccer competitions on a town or district basis.

This system has continued through to the present day, though all kinds of expedients have been used to give the code something of a national character. But, paradoxically, these attempts have resulted in pegging playing standards at an indifferent level. Instead of players of ability being recruited to a small number of first-class teams, their talent has been thinly spread over a vast geographical area and has been dissipated among the too many so-called first-division teams supported in regional leagues.

Today there are 22 associations administering soccer in areas extending from Northland to Southland. More than 20,000 men and boys play the game, which is now being accepted in high and secondary schools where in some instances the code was previously forbidden. New Zealand boasts no fewer than 6,000 schoolboy players and another 7,000-plus in closed grades. The interests of these latter are safeguarded by a junior council which, like the New Zealand Football Association parent body, is represented at provincial as well as national level. The New Zealand Referees' Association, which is represented on the New Zealand Football Association Council, is an elected body which centralises the activities of referees' associations in the provinces.

The present administrative structure is simply a natural growth and expansion of a demand by nineteenth-century soccer clubs wishing to bring to their recreation some patterned format. The New Zealand Football Association is, in effect, the sum total of its member associations, while the New Zealand Football Association Council is an elected working committee which sits in Wellington and acts on behalf of the total membership throughout the country.

Since the days of the Rev. J. S. Hill, C. C. Dacre, and Thomas Sibbin, an army of men (and more than a few women) has laboured to win for soccer a place in New Zealand's winter sun. The code owes a tremendous debt to all these dedicated people who worked without thought of reward. From among them the stature of a few demands identity–men like J. Kershaw, one of the four life members of the New Zealand Football Association, J. Cowie, and Leo Munro, of Auckland, George Cox, of Christchurch, and John Young, of Palmerston North, Alf Williams, Bill Hicks, Bill Arcus, H. H. Rennie, Bert Salmon, Frank Campbell, Frank Sanders, R. Bunt, Jack Cawtheray, Jim Flood, M. G. McInnes, Robin Adair, and B. A. Mabin. Some of them are now dead, but none is forgotten.

Competitions and Trophies

It was on 16 August 1890 that the first interprovincial game in New Zealand was decided. Canterbury entertained Wellington at Christchurch and won 2–0. In the following season a return fixture was played at Newtown Park, Wellington, and a delighted crowd applauded the home team's 1–0 victory. Robert Brown, of Glasgow, in New Zealand on business, saw the game, and at a function that evening said he would present a shield for competition among the provinces. The Brown Shield, first played for in 1892 at Christchurch and won by Wellington, became the symbol of provincial soccer supremacy under tournament rules. Then, in 1908 the basis of competition was changed; the shield was played for on a challenge system. This lasted till 1923 when the New Zealand Football Association was presented with a handsome trophy donated by the Football Association of England. Under various systems of competition the Football Association Trophy took the place of the Brown Shield as the provincial target, while minor associations were given the opportunity of competing for the Brown Shield. Both are still played for, but without marked enthusiasm by associations and without attracting much spectator support.

Another, and much more popular trophy, made its appearance in 1922. In return for hospitality enjoyed, the ship's complement of HMS Chatham presented the New Zealand Football Association with a replica of the famous Football Association Cup. Inevitably, the rules governing competition for it approximated to those of the internationally known original. The Chatham Cup quickly caught public imagination and it remains today the most coveted soccer objective.

From the inauguration of the competition in 1923, any team could enter on a knockout basis. But all the preliminary rounds are determined at local association level. Winning teams then go forward to zone, then island, and, finally, a national elimination. The final has always been played in Wellington. Following the first success of a “minor” association team, Hamilton Technical in 1962, the New Zealand Football Association Conference voted in favour of a limited open draw. This applies only to North Island associations, excluding Wellington. The South Island associations continue to operate the stepdown principle. To some extent this handicaps the giantkilling clubs which for so long in England have made cup ties wonderful revenue earners.

At different times other trophies have been donated to soccer. Still in existence and played for spasmodically at more or less national level are the Campbell Rose Bowl, the Flyger Rose Bowl, the Peter Dawson Cup, and the Junior National Cup. But the disadvantage attaching to all of them, with the solitary exception of the Chatham Cup, is that they demand representative teams at higher than club level. So it is found that club sides, battling for local trophies, have their hard-won combinations broken up by selectors charged with fielding a provincial team to play for one or other of the trophies which attracts little public attention. The clubs are sour when they lose games because of the absence of key players; the players themselves are sometimes confused when trying to combine with men they normally play against. Performance suffers and the turnstile revenue, on which the code must depend to a considerable extent, falls away.

Over the years it has been argued by administrators that only provincial fixtures give selectors opportunities of watching candidates for national honours. And it was this opinion which probably led to the interisland game which has been played from time to time since 1920. It seems to have been overlooked that such extreme disruptions of club play do not appear to be necessary in countries rated as the soccer powers of the world. Nor does this seem to have been a successful policy in the light of New Zealand's international record.

International Fixtures

The first venture into the international arena was in 1904, when New South Wales visited this country. The tourists won five of the nine games played. In the following season a New Zealand team travelled across the Tasman and played 11 games in New South Wales, winning six, drawing two, and losing three. Then, in 1922, an Australian team made a visit. This was New Zealand's moment of soccer glory. The local national team won two of three tests and drew the other, while provincial sides beat the Australians on two other occasions. A reciprocal visit to Australia in 1923 was not nearly so successful. New Zealand won only seven of the 16 games played.

In 1924 a Chinese universities team came to New Zealand, but managed to win only four of the 22 games on the itinerary. It was a different story when the Canadians arrived three years later In an itinerary of 23 games only Westland and the local national side beat the visitors, but New Zealand also drew a test. When the Australians returned in 1936 the team was untroubled to win all 12 matches, and the visit in 1937 of an English amateur team also demonstrated the weakness of the local game.

Since then New Zealand has been host to South Africa (1947), Australia (1948), Victoria (1951), South China (1955 and 1957), F. K. Austria (1957), Australia (1958), Costa Rica (1959), Tom Finney's English Eleven (1961), New Caledonia (1962), and West Germany's Karlsruher S.C. (1963). Only against the Chinese tourists and New Caledonia did the home teams enjoy any success, though both the South Island and Auckland Province defeated the Austrians.

Following the visits to New South Wales and Australia in 1905 and 1923, New Zealand made a second tour of the Commonwealth in 1933, winning three times and drawing once in a 13-match itinerary. In a seven-game tour of New Caledonia and Fiji in 1951 New Zealand lost only once-to New Caledonia, 0–2. On the three other occasions when the two teams met, New Zealand won convincingly.

In the following year New Zealand again travelled to Pacific countries. Ten games were played in Fiji and Tahiti. Eight were won and two drawn. The trip to Australia in 1954 gave New Zealand four wins and three draws in 11 games, but visits to New Caledonia (1958) and Tahiti (1959) were made without any loss to New Zealand's prestige.

Summary: Played 42, won 12, drawn 6, lost 24. Goals for 73, against 179.

Summary: Played 47, won 21, drawn 3, lost 22, abandoned 1. Goals for 116, against 128.

Recent Trends

It has long been a submission of a responsible body of soccer opinion in New Zealand that the future of the code in this country lies at the feet of its youth. The New Zealand Football Association director of coaching, the former Chelsea and England player, Ken Armstrong, subscribes to this view. And visits to New Zealand by an Australian schoolboys' team in 1927 and a return visit to Australia by a local boys' side 11 years later indicated that the lads were receptive to wider experience. Armstrong's enthusiam for up-to-date coaching methods has encouraged the formation of coaching associations in many districts and, backed enthusiastically by the junior council, comprehensive coaching projects are in hand to encourage boys' and youth football. The growing popularity of soccer at all levels and in all areas is making the impact of even soccer-skilled immigrants less forceful than it once was. What talent is imported into the country is still too thinly spread to produce higher playing standards in adult age groups. But as the senior players are absorbing the hard-learned lessons taught by the Englishmen, the Austrians, and the West Germans, they are showing more and more willingness to exploit them on the field of play, as well as to pass on the new techniques to junior teams they are nowadays offering to coach.

There is, without any doubt, a “new look” about soccer in New Zealand today. Since the international ban on Australia has been lifted, junior football administrators are hurrying forward plans to exchange youth-team visits. And on the local scene there is widespread activity to lift the code out of the stagnating mediocrity in which it has rested for more than half a century.

National League

Two significant projects were mooted in 1963. The first was that a national league, similar to the professional structure in Britain, should be established. The league is not yet in being (1964). The early enthusiasm for a national competition had to be modified on the grounds of cost, and a series of regional leagues, possibly two in the North Island and one in the South, is now being considered. It seems certain that something better than the small scattered local league system will be introduced in the near future. The second project was a suggestion by an international tour promoter, Willi Treml of Zurich, that a New Zealand national side should make a world tour, the upshot being that on 11 March 1964 a party of five officials and 18 players left Wellington. The team played 15 games in seven countries, winning one, losing 13, and having one abandoned (against an English Amateur XI) after 70 minutes with the score 1–4. It was obvious that the heavy air-travel schedule, the abruptness with which climatic and ground conditions changed, and the superior playing standards of overseas teams were handicaps too big for the New Zealand side to master.

by Alfred Flett, Journalist, Auckland.