Games Brings

New Interest In

Fiji Sports

m a Special Correspondent in Suva fi'obably it is an infection tn the coming First South :ific Games, to be held in at the end of August, atever it is, sport with a ital S is definitely on the up

ge in Fiji.

ECENT months have seen the re vival of two earlier associations had been hibernating for more i a few years, the Suva Amateur aiming Club and the Riding and > Club, and the birth of yet an ;r, the Fiji Rucksack Club, he swimming club, which hopes un water polo in the foreseeable ire, has already held “learn to n” classes for children under Mrs. i Whisson with two other women nbers assisting. lore than 40 children attended the ses, including about 25 who had earn from scratch.

Irs. Whisson has promised to give sewives a chance to learn too, bably towards the end of April, mwhile, the club is grooming its nmers at weekly meetings in the e that carnivals with swimmers n other centres can be arranged, dlo is also on the future pro nme of the Riding and Polo Club ch has a steadily increasing mem ihip despite the almost desperate : of horses in Fiji. The club em fs a caretaker to look after the ses on ground it has leased near :khurst Park and the sight of a up on horseback anywhere near a Point is no longer an oddity.

"he Fiji Rucksack Club hopes to ourage tramping, climbing, camp and other activities.

VTiile some of us might have con ned these suitable occupations in ler temperatures, we must all ap □d its objects to create an interest and knowledge and understanding the protection of the flora, fauna I natural features of the country ust to prove that some people re different ideas on how to beat heat, a number of members have

been talking about climbing Joske’s Thumb (a prominent landmark that can be seen from Suva) and a few have ambitions to climb Korobasa basaga, a range of rugged mountains, north of the Navua River.

New Hebrides Plans Representatives of Vila sporting bodies met in Vila on January 19 to form a sports federation to send a team of New Hebrides athletes to the South Pacific Games.

The federation, called the Federa tion Athletique et Sportive des Nouvelles Hebrides, has a committee of four. The committee members are M. Remy Delaveuve, Messrs. Doug Williams and Terry O’Connor and M.

Francis Doyen.

M. Delaveuve, the New Hebrides representative on the South Pacific

Games Committee, is expected to be appointed president of the federation.

The Vila Football Association (10 clubs), the Vila Tennis Club and Cricket Association, the New Hebrides Athletic Association and the Judo Club of Santo have already agreed to affiliate with the federation.

The Tennis and Football Clubs of Santo and the Vila Golf Club are expected to affiliate.

The federation plans to send a football and a tennis team to the Games plus as many athletes as it can afford. Money will be raised by ad mission fees at football matches and at sports days.

The Condominium Government is providing £5OO sterling for the Games, to be used by the federation committee at its discretion.