Winter Tournament

Dear "Salient."

With the annual N.Z.U. Cross Country Championship race for the Dixon Trophy only a week or ho away now it is an opportune time to raise once again the question of amalgamating this tournament with the other Winter Sports fixtures.

I was one of the College Harrier Club's representatives to the N.Z.U. Harrier Council mooting in Dunedin after last year's contest and the matter was brought up there and a resolution passed recommending consideration by the N.Z.U. Tournament Committee. This consideration was accordingly given and it was announced during the Tournament that, such an event as a Winter Tournament was considered to be Impossible because of billeting difficulties.

Granting the Tournament Committee and the N.Z.U.S.A. Executive are more competent to Judge and that their decision that a Winter Tournament embracing all winter sports including those held now at Easter, (Basketball and Boxing), is impossible, there seems to be no reason why the existing winter fixtures, the men's and women's hockey and the cross-country race, could not be combined. As far as billeting is concerned it should be remembered that the women's hockey and the Dixon Trophy race were both held in Dunedin last year within a month of each other. Further than this, the probable hosts of hockey players are not the same people as will be called on to billet the harriers. From the social point of view too, a tournament consisting exclusivity of women and one consisting exclusively of men could only gain by amalgamation.

From the practical point of view the permanent Monday holiday afforded by the observance of the King's Birthday on the first Monday in June seems to offer a weekend sufficiently long to allow of the conduct of all the events involved.—F.D.O'F.