"INSANE EXHIBITIONS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14472, 12 September 1910, Page 5

"INSANE EXHIBITIONS."

A LEGISLATOR'S PROTEST. [EY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.} Wellington, Sunday. An opponent of endurance skating competitions rose up in Legislative Council yesterday in the person of the Hon. Captain Baillie, who drew attention of the Attorney-General (Dr. Findlay) to a report on one of those tests which had appeared in & morning paper. The report stated that two men had set out to break the endurance record by skating for more than 514 hours. One of the men belonged to one of His Majesty's warships and he wanted to know if there were no regulations to stop these inhumane and insane exhibitions, which were becoming all too common.

The Attorney-General, in replying, remarked that the old Puritan objection to bear-baiting was not so much that it gave pain to the bear as that it gave pleasure to the spectators. If these exhibitions only gave pain to the exhibitors, said Dr. Findlay, he did not feel inclined to make any endeavour to protect the performer from himself. If the point raised was that such exhibitions were demoralising, that raised another question. He did not know whether the hon. gentleman was concerned about the bodily comfort of fool-performers or the interests of morality. / The matter was then dropped.