WRESTLING BOUTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 151, 28 June 1935, Page 11

WRESTLING BOUTS

LEGALITY OF CONTESTS

POWERS OF THE POLICE

ISSUE OF 'PERMITS

The action ■brought'by the National Sporting Club (Incorporated) against the •Commissioner of Police (Mr. W. G. Wohlmann) and Inspector G. B. Ed- ' wards in an endeavour to force the Police Department to issue wrestling 1 permits to the club was continued be- ■ lore the Full Court .yesterday after- ■ ;nobn. There was considerable legal ; ] argument on the question of the ; legality of the Police Offences (Wrest- * ling Contests) Regulations, and the legality of wrestling itself, as a sport. Their Honours the Chief Justice (Sir I Michael Myers), Mr. Justice Blair, Mr. ■'.. Justice Kennedy, and Mr. Justice "'■ Smith occupied the Bench. Mr. F. C. Spralt appeared lor the * plaintiff, and Mr. H. H. Cornish, K.G., Solicitor-General, with him Mr. J. D. Willis, for the defendants. "" ■ Addressing the, Court yesterday af- * ternoon, Mr. Cornish submitted that / ,the Court'was entitled to assume that ■ the Legislature knew when the regu- '• latiohs were made what most peoijle knew, and still knew, that when two powerful, Evenly-matched men fought for a valuable prize among partisans in an enclosed space feeling ran high and it did not take much to start a ■ first-class row. For that reason it was ■ highly desirable that undesirables should not be allowed to engage in such contests. It was contended that ;■ the police, who were the natural guardians of law and order, should be the people who were the best qualified to state whether such contests should take place. MANHANDLING REFEREES. '; Mr. Justice Smith asked if it was '" i\ fact that referees had been thrown out of the ring in wrestling contests. ■' "■■•■ Mr. Spratt: Yes, in both wrestling and boxing. 1; .Mr. Justice Blair:,l remember one ■'•' time when there was rather high feel- * ing at Prohibition meetings. The Chief Justice: I suppose even in a football match the referee has been attacked. Have you heard of a case? Mr. Justice Smith: There are in all sports. But they haven't been thrown right oft' the ground. ■ "During last year in one of the more « remote districts a whole team took to ," the referee and ran him off the * ground," said Mr.' Spratt. "The team was disqualified." "Six policemen were needed to .protect one referee in a Greymouth wrestling match." said Mr Cornish. After referring the Court to the definition of the word "permit" in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, Mr. Spratt said that the next question was whether wrestling was legal, and whether > the Court was in a position to take judicial notice of it. The first point that he wished to make was that there had been numbers of games that had : been.rendered illegal for different rea- , sons. ■ For. instance, in the time of 't Henry VII,: or Henry VIII, bowling ,V was made illegal by statute because '!;'■ of its effect upon the practice of - '' archery. Football, he thought, was ; declared illegal in the reign of Eliza- /■ beth for the same reason, namely, that * it attracted men away from the prac- / Using of military arts at a time when . Elizabeth wanted to. see that her.sub- *■' jects were'trained in military arts. But '' when it came to fightingLtfter'e^as. a distinction drawn between" fightin£,and a sport which stimulated fightings There was, also a distinction drawp.'between duelling with arms and practice at sword sticks. Duelling and; .prize-fighting on the.one hand weile £ '• illegal-because of the intention ;ioJdisable or malm. That was always ,ja common law crime, even if the parties were consenting: parties, A dipUnction had been drawn between %' mere exhibition of 'skill in sparring^ that was not illegal—and between jameeting where the parties intended to light until one gave in through, exhaustion.or mjury. In the M^ became a prize fight, and was illegal. * f Mr. Spratt said that he had made an ■ 'i> exhaustive. search, but he had/been' ,X unable to 'find any. reference in -the .-- legal text books to wrestling, althoughwrestling was one- of the oldest;; 6f English sports. ' ■ ': Mr. Justice Smith: Not , American wrestling. NOT ILLEGAL. Mr. Spratt said that it had never been held that wrestling was an illegal sport. What his clients had asked for was a permit to hold a wrestling contest, not of a kind that meant injury to life, and limb, but of a kind i,-, that in itself was an exhibition of skill '".", "which complied with the rules laid W "doWn-. in the regulations. The rules ,^ themselves would be-part of the perh', mit. The rules, first of all, dealt with »'r the ring and the equipment, and in the second place they provided' that the contestants each must submit a medical certificate, dated not more (haii si^veh days previous to the contest, that the competitor was physically fit to compete. The contests were £ limited to a certain number of rounds of limited duration, which experience, presumably, had shown to be not danKerous to men who gave such a certificate. In the case of professional ~s wrestlers the matches should not be f) v more than eight rounds of ten minutes w,j oacb,- and in amateur wrestling \y- matches were limited -to three rounds \ji of five minutes each. If there was (< undue roughness in a bout the. police * •' had power to put an end to the contest. •- ■ Counsel admitted that a wrestling contest might, degenerate into something unlawful. Any contest, he said; ■might do that, but that possibility could- not make, the contest 'illegal. As an illustration of this Mr. Spratt said that Rugby Union football was a ■ -t perfectly legitimate game,; but unlawr .-*-;. ful-conduct-might take place.in that game as in a Case where one player <-.*■ assaulted another. That, however, did '&.-•• not render; the game itself illegal.

After hearing further legal submissions the Court reserved its decision.