CRICKET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1987, 24 January 1907, Page 3

CRICKET.

ivI.C.C. MANAWATU. Press Association. PALMERSTON N., last night. There was a, small attendance, and tho fielding of Manawatu lacked the crispness of the visitors, and, with the exception of a few instances, the ground fielding was not done cleanly. The M.C.C. first innings closed for 2/5:3, and Maiiawatu’s second innings all are out for {MS, Scores. —- M.C.C. —hirst i 1111 ill gs. Branston, st Eyre, b BatboJomew 120 Tufnell, Ibw I) Ongley Id Torrens, e Eyre, b Ongley 60 May, b Bartlett » Fox, not out 11 Extras U* Total „■ 263 Manawatu —Second innings. • Hewitt, b May • 19 Oi.yne, c Do Traffoid 0 Joimiu-x, c Hayward, 1) Douglas 2 L. Skelloy. c Curwen, b May ... 10 Barren, b May 0 Mafoii, 0 Ciirwen, b Branston ... 18 Gordon, b Hayward '. £ Goldspring, c Tufnell, b May ... J Ongley. c Hayward, b Branston 0 Skelley, run out 1* Barlett. b Branston ./. / Bartholomew, not out Eyre, eDo Traffoid, b Branston 9 Extras 9

Total do Bowling .analysis —Douglas, two for 1“ ■ Mav, four for 20; Hayward, 0 for 28; Branston, four for 21. Manawatu. —Bartlett, six: for 64; Gordon, one for 35; Ongley. two lor 71; Batholomcw, one. The following players are requested to be oil the Victoria Domain on Saturday next to continue the matbli with United: Dudfiold, W. H. Wack, J. 11. Wack, J. Lang, D. M. Gorman, G. Cox, H. Cali an, R. W. Cary, J. Holschier, Jr Monk, Jeffries, and C. W. Brown. Te Rau and Common, Slieiton and Co. meet this afternoon on Victoria Domain, starting at 2 o’clock. The following plovers will represent To Rau: W. H. Wack, J. H. Wack, G. Cox, R. W. Cary, H. Gallon, ; D. M. Gorman, J. Monk, H Maude, P. 11bert, "Wilson, and H. Andrews.

AXEMEN’S CARNIVAL. MEETING OF CIIAAIPIONS. Singularly unlike most sportmen, at first glance, were tho tall, strapping buslnnen, who mustered on tlio Exhibition Sports Ground from Tasmania, AVest Australia, and Now Zealand, to show before over three thousand straining onlookers their prowess with the axo. They vi-oro no fancy costume, only the garb in which many of them had fought with Nature in her solitudes. Their easy ways and careless costumo told at once of tho country, and the axes which they wielded woro the visible sign and instrument of its development. Surely there could be no manlier sport, and none more full of meaning, than this which drow out tho same strength as that which had been exerted to clear the wilderness. The axe is tho pioneer of civilisation.

“For every silver ringing blow, Cities and palaces shall grow!” a Canadian pout makes tho woodman sing, anil with exultation ho exclaims ; “My axo and I—wo1 —wo do immortal tasks — AA r o build up nations —this my axo and I.” AVith such groat facts of lifo is tho sport of axomanship connected. Tlio champions who mot from so many places woro more concerned with details of their actual contest than with any such thoughts. AA’lnlo the great public waited for the first event to begin, tliey woro assiduously putting the last touches on their axes’ edges. To some extent this savoured of gilding refined gold, for tho edges were too lino already for the hard rirnu logs that had been suplied for tlio competitions. It was plain to all the men that with such timber there would bo no record times. AA’hite pine, in New Zealand, and bluegum, or stringy bark, in Australia and Tasmania, are the woods always used for chopping contests, and on these the standing records have been made. But yesterday’s competitors had to make the best of what had been provided, and they did so with a little murmuring. A “maiden chop.” with' 15-inch logs, was the first event. The logs woro nailed to heavy blocks of wood let into the ground. Each man was allowed to pencil on both sides of his log the outline of the cleft that he desired to make, and a. “seconder” stood by in each case, holding an extra axo, and pointing out the spots where, the most telling blows could be delivered. As the flashing axes swung in air and descended, now above, now below, carving out huge flakes of wood and carving a deep wedge in the timber, the crowd gave vent to their excitement in loud cries of encouragement and admiration. Tho seconders set no value on their fingers in their anxiety to assist their separate champions. Pointing hands seemed to be always just below the faling axe, but they escaped in time. AYhen the log was cut about half through, the competitor commenced the attack- from the other side, and loud was the applause when the two halves fell asunder. The times'Tvere long, compared with other competitions in which softer woods were used, blit to the crowd who were not expert it appeared a marvellous display of chopping. One strict rule of the competitions was very generally broken. One regulation declares that “any seconder chip-pulling shall be expelled from the ring, .and will not be allowed to reenter during the meeting.” But not to pull away the chips already cloven was a restraint which flesh and blood could not submit to, and breaches of the inhuman mandate were officially winked at.

AVhen the anlanse which greeted the. conclusion of the first event had died away, the Besses o’ tli’ Barn Band, on tho rotunda, struck up with selections after all the events-; and generously responded to a number of encores.

A maiden double-handed sawing championship was the next competition, and although extremely brief—the winners’ time was 22 seconds—it was most exciting. Four stalwart couples plied the long double-handed saws with almost inconceivable celerity,, the logs being secured across strong , trestles. The Tasmanian champion, AA’. Chcllis, who has twice held tho world’s records for the two feet standing block chop, and is the present world’s champion for the underhand chop with 18-incli logs, met with hard, fortune in this contest. AVith his fellow sawyer. Morrison, he ivas the first finished, and loud were the crowd’s acclaims till it was seen that their saw had jumped at the first pull, starting too near to the edge, and cutting in a slanting direction, so that it came out on the end face of the log above its lower surface. This, of course, was not accounted a proper cut. The underhand handicap of £25 followed, boing contested in two heats and a final. Tlio logs ‘ were across grooved hoards, firmly secured in the ground, and for additional stability, were nailed to uprights at each end. Before each heat the competitor nicked for himself a flat foothold at each end of the log. In stockinged feet ho then took his stand upon the timber, and the fine physique of the contestants was shown to its best advantage as their lithe, strong bodies rose and fell with the axe’s stroke. The unwonted hardness of the timber was too much for the keen implements of one competitor, who retired in the second heat with two ruined axes, which he threw down with much disgust. Their edges were deeply notched for their entire breadth; both axes, in fact, like that of Gilbert’s- gentle executioner, were “far less like a hatchet than a dissipated saw.” For the final heat the competitors availed themselves once more of tlio assistance of seconders, who directed their blows with much necessary celerity. Tlieir efforts had all the interest of an in-ter-colonial struggle, since the eight contestants were composed of three Tasmanians, three AVest Australians, and two' New Zealanders—the O’Rourke brothers, hailing from the AVest Coast. Tasmania,, with Featherstone and Lacy, won first and second places, but the O’Rourkes upheld tlio honor of New Zealand by heating all tho other competitors. — Christchurch Press.

THE KANAKA. GIRL VILLAGE SLAVES. The decision of tho electors of the Commonwealth to doport tho Pacific Island laborers to tlieir homes in tlio South Seas was arrived at, siVys the Sydney Morning Herald’s commissioner, without any regard for tho feelings or opinions of the kanakas themselves on the subject, but, dcspito that, thore is no doubt, that tlio vast majority of Australians aro strongly desirous that thoro shall bo no inhumanity in carrying out the work. A visit to tho islands and inquiries on tho spot, liowovor, have disclosed some unexpected features which call for tho prompt and earnest' attention of tho Minister responsible for the administration of tho Act. It should bo understood that in tho Solomons each island has its own customs, and oven when separated by a few miles only tlieso may differ very greatly. AVhat is being written now, tlioroforo,refers only to Malaita, from which place tlio majority of the kanakas now in Queensland were recruited. Many of them have boon in that Stato for 10 or 20 yours, and many of them have married countrywomen of their own, and havo reared families in Queensland. AA’hoio those can bo forced or persuaded to go back to tho islands they are boing sent; and tho result is that tho female children are being practically doomed to tlio worst' kind of lifo to which a woman can bo condemned. This is so repugnant to tho native women that many of them have in the past recruited to work in tho canofiolds rather than become village slaves.

It should bo explained that among tho Malaitans any breach of morality by married * or single persons results in tlio offenders usually being tied together and dumped into tho sea to drown. But at each village aro kept female slaves for what a civilised community terms immoral purposes. The chiefs rarely consign women to such a lifo in tlieir own village unless they have been offenders against tbe moral code, but usually got by capture or purchase girls born in other islands. The female children born in Australia are regarded ns not possessing tribal rights,and there is little doubt that they will be made slaves when they return with their parents to the villages of the latter. Some of tho kanaka children now in Malaita have been educated and taught in public schools, and that they should be sent, to become village slaves for heathen savages is too repugnant for even tho warmest advocate of kanaka expulsion to contemplate. By the last steamer from Cairns there wore about, a dozen children, and on arrival at tho distributing depot in the Solomons I asked tho parents individually if they had been informed if the Queensland-born children were exempt from deportation, and the answer in every case was “No.” They had been told they must go. They had been booked for the villages from which they had recruited, but the mothers, realising what was in store for their little ones all decided to go to the various mission stations instead of to their homes. The missionaries give sanctuary to all who go there, as far as they can, but even tho mission stations in Malaita are not altogether safe against raids. The matter is one requiring prompt attention with a view to preventing the deportation of young girls born and reared in Queensland to such a life as lias been referred to