In August 1910, Ernest Kivell, a cattle-dealer from Pyworthy and well-known in the district, came before the Police Court in Holsworthy charged with allowing a bull to be driven without a staff.
The law required that a bull must be led on the public roads with a long, strong bull-staff attached to the ring in his nose to keep him out of mischief. This was no frivolous regulation; cases of bulls killing or maiming people were all too common.
P.C. Clements told the Court that Mr Kivell's lad told him the animal was going to be trucked to Exeter and the constable advised him to take the required precautions. No such precautions were taken and later the constable asked Ernest Kivell how he had got on in Exeter. Ernest said there had been no problem. P.C. Clements no doubt felt his authority had been slighted. Ernest was summoned to appear before the Court.
Ernest Kivell conducted his own defence. He cross-examined the constable:
Ernest: Do you know a bull from a steer? (a steer is a bullock, a castrated bull, mild-mannered because neutered!)
The Constable: I think so.
Ernest: I did not have a bull in my possession that day.
The Constable: You never disputed it.
Ernest: You said I was offending the law, and that you were going to summon me. I thought I would let you have a go.
The Constable: Why did you not dispute it?
Ernest: Not a bit of it. I thought if you didn't know a bull from a steer that was your misfortune and not my fault.
Police Sergeant Tooze asked Ernest Kivell: Why didn't you tell the constable it was not a bull?
Ernest: If the police make fools of themselves I can't help it. Any schoolboy would have known different.
Sergeant Tooze: You did not tell the constable so?
Ernest: It is not our business to educate the police as to what is a bull and what is a steer.
Ernest called witnesses to prove that his bull was a steer and then he made an outrageous speech:
It was a monstrous thing, he said, that because the police did not know their business better, farmers and dealers should be interfered with in this way and have summonses issued against them and people brought there to disprove what they tried to prove. Many business and professional men had had to waste their time there that morning. Anyone who saw the bullock a hundred yards away could have seen it was a steer.
The Court seems to have enjoyed the joke. It dismissed the case. Nobody pointed out to Ernest that a timely word from him would have made the whole charade unecessary. He had played the part of a free-born Briton, rejoicing in his liberties. He had his fun. I imagine that in no other nation in Europe would he have got away with it! In Holsworthy Police Court in 1910 not a word was said about his misleading the police and wasting everybody's time.
Source: The Western Times, Friday, 19th August.
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