ASSAULT ON THE REFEREE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 13

ASSAULT ON THE REFEREE

MAXIMUM FINE INFLICTED .

MAGISTRATE’S VIEW OF OFFENCE

MENACE TO VALUE OF FOOTBALL.

For assaulting the referee and using indecent language in the Okato-Tukapa match at Okato, E. Roebuck, Okato, was lined altogether £ll, with costs £2 12s, in the New Plymouth Police Court vesterday. The case was heard before Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., last week, and sentence was deferred until yesterday. He had asked for a report on defendant, said the magistrate. For the police Sergeant McGregor said three references had been received from Air. Fox, J;P., Air. Adams and Air. Smith. All spoke well of the defendant, saying he was a hard worker and an industrious man.

Roebuck was a young married, man, „ said Air. A. A. Bennett. He thought it was a ease for clemency. Roebuck had never been in trouble before.

“I want to repeat what I said before,” said the magistrate. “Everyone who commits assault is liable to two. months’ imprisonment or a fine of £lo,'’ Imprisonment is applicable in serious cases. An assault on the referee I regard as serious; it is an assault on authority. The referee must have implicit obedience. Any grievance between players and referees must be taken up in a constitutional manner with the Rugby Union or other governing body and not dealt with by violence. Otherwise football, instead of being an. element of character building of national n importance, must deteriorate and might become an element of national degradation. Further,- such assaults as this are serious because they tend io create public-disturbances, general breaches of the peace, even riot in eases where feeling runs high.” He did. not approach the matter as . a breach of football discipline, said the magistrate. Thai was a matter for the Rugby Union. He approached it as ah. assault upon a person in authority —■ such as a- referee at football, an umpire at cricket, a judge at a show. Assaults upon such functionaries .must be regarded as serious—their persons must be inviolate. .

The magistrate repeated that assault was punishable with two months’ imprisonment or a fine of £lO. “The normal punishments for assaults such as this,” he said, ’’should- be imprisonments.”

Fortunately for Roebuck,. said the magistrate, he had a good report upon him, an exceedingly good report.. Further, the offence was the. first of the kind he'had met in the district. He hoped, it would be the last. Though the maximum fine was really inadequate he had decided not to impose imprisonment but to sentence the defendant to pay a fine of £10; in default of payment two months’ He would also have to pay the costs of the proceedings. “It must be understood,” added'the magistrate, “that I dbubt whether I have made this punishment fit the crime and that I should find very great difficulty in not sending to prison any subsequent offender, in spite of his good record apart than the assault. “On the charge of using indecent language I agree, as the vicar of Okato says in a reference, that the language happened in a moment- of passion,” said the magistrate. “On that charge Roebuck will be fined 29s and costs 525,”

On the .application of Mr. Bennett Roebuck was'allowed two weeks to pay.