SAFE FOR REFEREES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 173, 24 July 1930, Page 9

SAFE FOR REFEREES.

KEEPING FOOTBALL CLEAN.

OKATO PLAYER PINED , KIO

POR ASSAULT.

MAXIMUM PENALTY.

(By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) • NEW PLYMOUTH, Wednesday. Referees in football matches must be protected from assaults upon them, and such offences should normally be punished bv imprisonment, but, as the reports upon defendant's character were favourable' he would be allowed that benefit, said the magistrate to-day when sentencing Edward Roebuck, an Okato senior Rugby .player, for assaulting the referee, Mr. Kenneth Nodder, and for using indecent language. The maximum fine of £10 was imposed, in default two months' imprisonment for assault, while a £1 fine was imposed for the use of indecent language. l

" "I am not approaching this matter fi'om the. point of view of a football offence," said the magistrate. ''That must be taken up by the Rugby Union on proper authority." His Worship added that unless such matters were dealt with football, which was a fine game, possessing elements of character buildWg, would degenerate into anything but that; Assaults such as the present were very serious and they might create pubhe disturbances. He would treat the offence as an assault upon a person in authority, the same as an umpire was a t a cricket match or a judge at a show.

The magistrate said he felt some doubt a « to whether, the punishment really fitted the crime, and he did not think that any further offence of the kind would meet .with such leniency.