ATHLETIC CONSTABLES. "Have Beens" or "Ares"?

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 277, 21 October 1905, Page 6

ATHLETIC CONSTABLES. "Have Beens" or "Ares"?

NEW Zealanders are athletic people. You hear of their straining their hearts at football, and riding bikes to a standstill, and all that sort of thing. Also, you learn from reliable sources th*' lots of police recruits are rejected by" the authorities because they ha jb athlete's enlarged heart or varicose veins induced by excess of exercise. Then you smile. You wonder, in fact, why, when. an. athlete issafely drafted into the force, he runs to fat and forgets to keep himself hard. • • • Inspector Ellison, at the Boxing Association re-union, said that young men in the police took an interest in; bosing and wrestling. So' they ought to. So ought also the obese sergeants, and the fat long-service men. To do the Wellington policeman justice, he; as a rule, wades right mto 1 the row wherever he strikes it. A "rough house" with six blasphemous firemen is oftentimes an excellent thing to leave alone. The Commissioner of Police recognised the desirability of seeing smart, alerb-looking men on beat a while ago by ordering that the police be drilled. A smart-looking "trap," with his head back, and his chest out, and his shoulders squared, gains more respect than a six-feet three of wilted slab that shuffles along as if it hurt him. The slab may be a great athlete, but be may not look it. A policeman's life is a weary monotone in blue, and the physical exertion of it isn't specially great, except on "rough house" occasions, when Cockney Joe gets 1 a mouthful of the policeman's ear, and tihe policeman wants to keep the ear. It does not matter that the policeman may have been a great athlete — twenty years ago>. Is he able at this moment to wade right into battle without straining himself, or without having to retire brokenwinded ? » • • We have a distinct recollection of the visit of Sandow, and the squad of policemen his assistant drilled in the Fire Brigade yard. Only one policeman, a tall, red-he-aded chap, was in the least fit. Most of them retired dead beat after a few movements. Most of them were men under forty, and some couldn't get "on the hands-down" for distended waistcoat It is extremely creditable in a fat policeman to tackle anything that fights, but it would be much easier on the policeman if he was compelled to train hard and often m order to check adiposity. • • • Policemen "over on the other side" are among the best shots in the Commonwealth, the police have the champion rough-riders, and some of the best boxers, runners, and fencers in Australia. New Zealand has many splendid has-beens, and a few "ares." It wants more "ares."