PERMITS FOR WRESTLING

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 August 1935, Page 7

PERMITS FOR WRESTLING

National Sporting Cliib Loses Action Against police RIGHT OF REFUSAL UPHELD MAJORITY VERDICT GIVEN (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, To-day. The Full Court this morning delivered its reserved judgment in- the case of the National Sporting Club v. Commissioner Wo.hlmann and Edwards hoard on June 27, and which arose out of the refusal of the police to grant a permit to the National Sporting Club to hold a wrestling contest on June 3 at the Wellington show stadium, said to be between McOeady and Walker. The majority of the Court, Justices Blair, Smith and Kennedy, held that regulations 8 of the Police Offences (wrestling contests) regulation, 1931, was-valid, and that a police officer in whose jurisdiction the matter fell had, by virtue of section 72 of the Police Offences Act, 1927, .unfettered discretion to grant or withhold a permit. This discretion was subject only to the limitation that it must be exercised bona fide according to the merits of each particular case. The Chief Justice, in .a_. dissenting judgment, held regulations 8 to be invalid, and that section 72 of the Police Offences Act, 1927, did not- confer unfettered discretion upon an inspector of police, "but merely provided for police supervision l and control of wrestling contests. In his view the permit could not properly be refused, if' the preliminaries necessary to the obtaining of such a permit were complied with. The plaintiff club was ordered to pay 15 guineas costs and disbursements. ' ii. • .