BIG FIGURES FOR BAD TIMES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 15, 19 January 1932, Page 6

BIG FIGURES FOR BAD TIMES

Not many businesses nearlydoubled their receipts in 1931, as compared with 1930, yet the New Zealand Wrestling Union reports that its total "gate'V rose from £10,744 to' £19,259. Unlike the actors and actresses, the wrestling stars and speed kings are not yet concentrating at Hollywood for the purpose of presenting their performances tb the world by film instead of. in person. The fashion still is to give audiences the gladiator in the flesh; and the Wrestling Union has demonstrated sufficient organisation and energy to make New Zealand attractive to a fairly expensive troupe of outside wrestlers, mostly American. The emphasis, however, is not so much on New Zealand as on its leading cities, for the Union admits a difficulty in inducing highly paid Americans to perform outside those cities or even outside the North Island. A Walker-Pinto "gate" of £544 in Auckland and a WalkerPasha "gate" of £533 in Wellington have few echoes; and a wrestler who receives £250 for a single bout in I either of those cities is hardly likely to be keen to build up the noble art in a smaller town. It is to be feared that our occasional visitors of the wrestling fraternity are not ardent I missionaries in this respect, j