OUR KUMARA LETTER.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 6 March 1901, Page 3

OUR KUMARA LETTER.

if ]OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

The fortnightly meeting of the Kumara Young Men’s Club took place last evening at the School of Mines. There was only a moderate attendance due no doubt to the rain. The business of the evening, a lecture by Mr MTlraith, was proceeded with. The subject of the lecture was “ Money,” and in the capital hands of Mr MTlraith it received masterly treatment. The one regret is that he was not favoured with a larger audience. W e so rarely get such an intellectual treat in Kumara that it seems a great pity more encouragement is not given to those who undertake the study and labour necessary to prepare lectures of the kind. Perhaps the almost utter absence of such in the past has dulled the appreciation of some who would otherwise attend and now having found something more congenial to their tastes, it is hard to arouse an interest in matters on a higher plane. There is evidently to be a battle royal on Easter Monday and Tuesday between the Kumara and Hokitika Jockey Clubs. All efforts in tire past on the part of the local club to arrange an amicable settlement failed, simply because the Southern Club had determined to ride rough shod over what they deemed to be a weaker club. They hoped by extinguishing Kumara to have not only the Xmas dates but the Easter ones. The proposal was made, when this dispute arose a couple of years back, to take their dates alternately. Hokitika, however, refused to fall in with the suggestion for obvious reasons. The feeling locally against the grasping tactics of our southern neighbours is very strong, and now that they have thrown down the gauntlet I can promise them it will be a fight to a finish.

Given fine weather thcKumara course promises to be in splendid trim for racing. There is such a fine carpet of grass that there need be no fear of having to dig any horses out of mud-holes. The necessary repairs to the fences and buildings are well in hand, and the club intend to have no stone unturned to satisfy the wants of their patrons.

A very old identity in the person of Mr Patrick Brick passed away yesterday at the Kumara Hospital. Deceased had been an inmate of that institution for many months. He suffered from a very painful disease of the nostrils that eventually proved fatal. Paddy Brick, as lie was familiarly known, was one of the good old timers, generous to a fault He was (18 years of age, a native of Kerry, Ireland, and came to the colony when quite a youth. He was uncle to Messrs Jeremiah and Owen Sullivan of this town