SOMETHING FOR GOLFERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1914, Page 4

SOMETHING FOR GOLFERS.

\J( good gollers will he interested to now that Judge Parry has com ri I mill some light and leading on a vexed liiostion in a coiitribution to the “Cornhill .Magazine,” in which he lea Is with “'J’ho Law of the Lost Golf ’ail.” The discussion is not one affecting stroke or distance, or the plav- ! 'T of the game itself, lint is an exlinination of the law regarding the ownershi]) of lost—or possibly it would •<* more oorreet to say found—halls.' I dis Honor says that some intricate! ■egal prohlems are involved, and any-! lying so simple as “findings keeping” vilf not help in tin* slightest. Sir Matthew Hale has pointed out that here is an exception to this old rule >t law : “Where a man’s goods are in nich a place where ordinarily they are )r may he placed, and a person takes j diem ammo furandi, it is felony, and | the pretence of finding must no L ex- 1

:uKe.” The .fudge refers to a golfer, ilisguisod under the title of “a certain: under-sheriff,” "ho constantly slices [ils ball into a particular “zariba" of, aorse and trees, and though this is out ! of bounds and. quite a sheer place for trolf balls, it may be maintained that ( they “ordinarily are or may be placed; there” by him. it is dangerous to! touch them, and yet this is a comparatively simple case; another lairly sim-j pie one is that of the caddie who goes: back in the evening to find his employ-: or’s ball. If he takes it “with intent I to exercise entire dominion over it,” that is larceny ; but if he begins to play a- round with it himself, intending to return it next day, and lose it again, the only remedy is an action for damages. With the seashore come various complications, and even the question of ejectnm marts; the Judge commonly toes the wreck of a ball at the tenth hole at Llandudno and trusts that nobody will trouble about salvage. His main conclusion, reached by steps which we cannot trace here, is that if you find a golf ball the safest thing is to take it at once to the County Coroner. Dealing with some of the points above referred to the Manchester Guardian concludes by remarking that fortunately the people of Britain are not a litigious nation, and golf continues to be played without appeals to the Courts. The truth is that a lost golf ball rapidly deteriorates, and even au old golfer can pretty well number the good ones he has found; there is a peculiar joy in them, and a peculiar resentment if they he claimed. But no case for the recovery of a ball is on record. ,