THE MELBOURNE CUP.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5058, 29 November 1926, Page 1

THE MELBOURNE CUP.

STORY OF THE RACE. TOLD BY WIRELESS FIRMS. The Melbourne Cup is a remarkable event. It is not a mere horse race ; it is. a national institution. Behind it are 65 years of tradition, ajnd though all the thrill of a horse race, of straining thoroughbreds, the sheen of siik jackets, the crack of whips are .there, something else connected with it lifts the event from the realm of a mere turf contest. Sydney sinks its jealousy in paying tribute to its greatness. Sydney has its ojvn cup, but though the prize money is almost equal to that of the Melbourne event, it arouses nothing like the interest “the” Cup does. Sydney might justifiably be jealous, but it is, not. This emphasises the national character of the event. As the years go by, efforts increase either to be present at the race or to have news df it by the quickest possible me.ans. Probably on waking on Cup morning in London Mr Bruce’s first thought was, not of the important tasjks of the Imperial Conference, but of the Flemington course, and what woil the gre®jt event of his native city. The race was in progress} before .the institution of the telegraph, and in the early years it .took weeks, and in some cases, .months, before the results leaked through to the furtherest corner of the Continent. With telegraph and telephone improvements transit of the result became faster and faster. This year the news of Spearfel.t’s victory, indeed the description of the whole race, was learnt more rapidly than ever. This has been .achieved by wi'neless. Fully a quarter of the people in Sydney knew the result as the horses were passing the post. The principal Melbourne broadcasting station described the race 'from the time the horses left the saddling paddock until they returned, but a. more remarkable feat was. the efforts of .the two firstclass Sydney stations to give li'stenersin a similar service. They both hired land lines from the Telegraph Department from Melbourne to Sydney, con- . veyed the description of .the race along these to their stations, and then broadcasted them. Thousands of people sitting in their own homes heard the race thus described. Not only private owners of sets 'benefited. Every wireless apparatus dealer in the city affixed a loud speaker in the doorway of his store, ®ind as the Americans s.ay, "told the world” what was happening down Flemington way. Hundreds of people, in some cases thousands, gathered round these■ shops, stopped, and listened, and easily imagined themselves at Flemington. Office boys, clerks, company directors, managers, typists, idlers, all the inhabitants of workaday Sydney, seemed to be ou,t in the streets, gathered at these listeningposts.

Members Of Tattersall’s Club, some of whom could remember when it took a day for the news to filter through to Sydney, sat in their loungei room and listened-in. The club has been established about 70 years, and it' would have been looked upon as a rare joke if its first members had been told that there would comet a day when members could sit in comfortable chairs ajnd listen to a description of the Melbourne Cup while it was being run.

Nor is wireless, the only remarkable think about the present-day Cup. Take the traffic to Melbourne. Three expresses daily are sufficient to carry the usual railway passengers from Sydney to Melbourne. For a fortnight before the race from six to eight expresses are run.