GEORGE WALKER ARRIVES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 400, 8 December 1932, Page 6

GEORGE WALKER ARRIVES

value of wrestling WELL-KNQWN GRAPPLER TO GIVE EXHIBITION . TO-NIGHT DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH George Walker, the well-known champion wrestler and holder of the New Zealand medal, needs no introduction to the sporting public of Rotorua. Yesterday he arrived in town in prepai*ation for a series of exhibition bouts which will be staged this evening in the Majestic Theatre. Walker, variously described as a Canadian panther, 'the White Terror, and other colloquial titles, is just plain George Walker from Takapuna, Auckland, when at home. He prefers to be known as a citizen of his adopted country, where everybody likes him. All the youngsters in Takapuna know their George, and they follow him round to the gyms

and over the hills when he trains. He is land to them and niisses no opportunity of giving them lessons in physical culture, espeeially when there is a good fiame to work on. It is Waikora iiobby as well as his business. He can aceount for many a well set up boy to-day, but he wants more. He v, ants to spread his gospel throughout the country and has undertalcen to tour both Islands for that purpose. Interviewed at e his hotel a ";«o*ning Post" reporter found Mr. Walker anything but a panther or a White Terror. Instead he was quite an aminbie man of the world, with a romnant of the Canad.an twang still noticeable in his speech. And of comse the wrestlor's proud emblem on each side of his head, the "caulivS." 1. v. as not a a„y to gct George to Hk. "L.sten," he said, leaning forward in quite a serious mood, "I'm no good at talking. I would sooner wrestle for an hour than taik for tlir'ee minutes. I just hate it, but I am going to try my best to get the young folk growing up in this country to grow ap the right way. Wrestling is only a means to an end. To a professional of course, it means a serious occupation, like any other kind of work, but for amateurs, and that is wliat I am after, it is just a means to good health. "Few people," he continued, "fully realise what life has to offer in the way of physical development. Nature has given us a wonderful frame. There is always something somewheve in the body waiting to be further developed. There is no man living who can claim perfection. No matter how poorly conditioned a boy might be he can be straightened up and given robustness. Proper treatment makes the body respond like maehinery." "Look at me," said Mr. Walker, as he squared back his mighty shouklers, "Can you imagine that only five years ago I had double pneumouia? And yet for the past four years I have taken part in hundreds of wrestling matches against some of the best professional wrestlers known in America." "And hold your own too?" interposed the reporter. "Yes, and, well here is my medal," Walker replied. "Never mind about that, I'll get licked soon enough, there are plenty that will do that. But I want to follow up this development of youth thing that I have started on. I want to get the boys interested in wrestling, but only because I know the good it does to their bodies, their temper and their brains. It is a fine thing and I have made a hobby of it — cost me what it will."