WRESTLING CONTEST

Southland Times, Issue 22297, 12 April 1934, Page 7

WRESTLING CONTEST

MAGISTRATE’S DECISION.

PROPRIETOR FINED. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 11. Whether a sideshow exhibition given at Wellington at the Easter Show was a wrestling contest, and whether the conduct of the woman helping to run it amounted to offensive behaviour, were questions that Mr E. Page, S.M., answered in a reserved decision today. The defendants were John Laurence Baker, who was charged with holding a wrestling contest without a permit, and Doris Baker. The alleged wrestling was concerned with an offer of a pound to anyone who could kiss a girl connected with the show, the condition being that her shoulders must be pinned to the mat. The charge against the woman was largely concerned with what was stated to be a hoax, characterized as very suggestive. In his judgment Mr Page held that the contest was a wrestling one, and convicted Baker, imposing a fine of £l. The charge against the woman was dismissed, the Magistrate saying that her action in exhibiting a certain spectacle was not offensive, because those who witnessed it desired to do so. If the action or language of the defendant was indecent, it might be attacked under other provisions of the Statute.