FEATS OF ENDURANCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6632, 11 June 1928, Page 3

FEATS OF ENDURANCE

SOME FREAK TESTS. EPIDEMIC IN AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, May 31. Australia just now is passing through a queer epidemic, numerous young men seeking notoriety by way of accomplishing feats of endurance. Queer as the epidemic is, it has led to stranger Ndcvclopmonts, and to at least one police court case in which the principals were charged with imposition. At Bathurst a young man from Coogee set out to break the record for continuous dancing. Tho police were suspicious of him and allege that when a constable visited the casino the dancer and his attendant were asleep. Both were arrested and “the would-be record-breaker danced his way to the police station,’’ danced before the sergeant as ho was being charged and searched, and danced his way to the cells, and danced while he was locked up in the cells. He maintained that he was perfectly genuine, and he was not going to allow a little thing like an arrest to interfere with this record. It has not been stated whether he succeeded in his object, but his dancing had ceased when he appeared before tho magistrate. He pleaded not guilty afld his ease was dismissed on a technicality. The ease for the prosecution was that a constable visited the hall at 2 a.ra. and found the plate in darkness. He located a man in an anteroom, who said that the dancer was in another room dancing in the darkness because the light had affected his eyes. The constable returned at 5 o’clock with a civilian and then found that the dancer was also asleep on a couch. Tho man that was supposed to be keeping watch was also asleep. The same afternoon the police sergeant purchased tickets to see the test, and the charge arose out of the sale of tickets to the sergeant Although the dancer had admitted going to sleep, the prosecution failed on -tho ground that tho sergeant, when he purchased the tickets, knew of the imposition. Therefore it could not I'C said that the sergeant’s money was secured by means of false pretence.

In another town a young man had discovered that there was such a thing as a ball-punching record, and he thought it would bo a good thing to try to break it. About five years ago a man at Rockhampton punched a ball for three or four days without stopping, and that record remains. The latest aspirant for the “honour”, punched for nearly three days until he became temporarily blinded, and then retired.

Next, Eric Sunderland, champion long-distance walker in Victoria, announced that he would dance from Melbourne to Geelong, a distance of 47 miles. He succeeded and he claims to have established a record. Nobody is disputing that. Ho had relays of partners, who accompanied him in motor-cars, and a gramophone on one of tho cars provided the necessary music. He arrived in Melbourne as fresh as paint and ocnlinued his dancing for a-quarler of an hour.