WHERE WILL IT ALL END?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1102, 15 April 1911, Page 6

WHERE WILL IT ALL END?

FORMIDABLE RULES OF RUGBY

in the days when Rugby football was a sport and nothing more, tho. referee must have been happy in a freedom that has seemingly passed away. To-day he is sometimes a remarkably clover man, more often an exceedingly 'puzzled one, condemned to add ceaselessly, by his own industry, to the burdens that press down on his official personality. It is some such impression as this' of the modern referee and his functions that a layman will inevitably gather who attends the. annual korcro of tho New Zealand Referees' Association. If referees ever did gather in conference when football was in the (lush of its youthful innocence, no doubt their aim was to simplify tho rules of the game. Judging from proceedings yesterday, members of tho craft clierisli that aim still, but, at somo time or another, in the years gono br, a fatal tendency sot in to substitute subtlety for simplicity, and clever hair-splitting ror broad common sense. Tho proceedings yesterday made it, very evident that tho Rugby referee now carries on his back a burden of case law that makes an unburdened outsider ache for sheer sympathy. The men who traverse with confidence this jumbled maze ot jargon that is called case law are exceedingly few. The number whom it puzzles must be legion. In the meeting yesterday there was noticeable an atmosphere of mild perplexity and confusion. Month by month and year by year the bulk of interpretations has mounted up, and yesterday saw more interpretations—more piling of Pelion on Ossa.

In common fairness, it must be said that there are men among the referees who thread tbemazc with skill. They are "full of wiso saws and modern instances." The manner in which they tackle their task would do credit to a King's Counsel labouring with a tortuous case. These men are the brilliant exceptions. Their humbler brethren sit in an attitude of hearkening. They note with patient care each new ruling and interepretation. -No 'doubt they would apply every clause and proviso did it lie within the compass of their powers. It is to bo reckoned a tragedy of human industry and persistence that it does not. Where will it all end?