Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY JANUARY 21,1890. The Jubilee Meeting.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 21 January 1890, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY JANUARY 21,1890. The Jubilee Meeting.

The 22ud of. January 1.840 is a [ date of vast importance to the settlers of New Zealand, as that date madia the* Ja^dingf. of the : fiu6t 'of those " Pilgrim 'Fathers " to whoW endrgy. and audacity s tlief 'p^es^iit ' iiihabitants owe their homes! The Maori <>nly , JMGtiri queers , bf | ' $\f\ mwioDar^'idHWd^wnaler, '• c^n'framV 1 strong enough to^djnit of a desire t^ know what the intormerfiajie yepresentativefi'of^h'tfee'twd c'asfeGs ; were like. Fifty years ago these pioneers arrived, and have sinco spread ovet the face of the colony: An old settler is a man of importance this day, and decidedly so, as few of ws^ who ara not of th'r»tr>, can imagine the lives they had to ]m<\. Communication! between one litt'e band and anchor was only maintained by passini; through large tribes Of'natives, some' of whom behaved peaces j fully, others %efy arrOL'antly. Win ' have heard the did p- opio talk of walking to Wellington and back, carrying their goods as ■" best they oould, and one oM settlor now residing on the bulks of the Rangitikei, gained gi-f at creflit by . the puWctuaiity hft kept i.'i : delivering cl>e Royal* Mail with which he trudged , up and down the coast, with it' strapped upon his back Stock' was imported by degrees, being obtained firstly from Sydney, r .and tjie. late Mr Eobinson'wa's the fir'sf posessor of a horse oni this const. The. alteriVtion that fifty years . have: made, ib not mow stnkingly shown than, iv thig item f of possession of r w.« In the early days a man was tnarke'd who liad a horse, 1 now, a man, is marked who has not a; horse, and we nearly said, a racehorse. Tlip liking for ahorse is put ddwn as an English instinct^ forgetting: i\mi the posses, sion of horpps dates baok to the era 8.C., ana that hone racing wa3 one of the oldest games of fch- Greeks Indeed in the yeor 649 B.C. they, introduced races for f nil aged horses, also one for mares, nnd in B.C. 253 they had one for under aged horses. Thero is no mention of the style they bet on the 'races, but tliat they did is a sure as that a horse was runDireotly horses became nnrnei" *3 in the colony then thft settlers met together and rrtn one against the o-her/ind, If it is not treason o say so, 'they declare the f-port in those days was na good as in, ; these In fact they go further and state that the country meetings were plensanter as all the neighbours got together, and the raoing was forVtho sport, 1 and not for the stakes or totalisator We can believe 1 this, m "we havo' witnessed raoes twenty years ago, where a pleaean^ outing was phtained without the necessity 1 of putting a pound on the wrong horse, an error whidh is bound to be made oy all; except those whp put their faith en, tirely in "blind luck." The races tomorrow will witness the J 1 upset" of many a clever one's, cei'taitity, and if it only entails the loss of a sum the backer will not miss, the trouble will be slight. We are food of rasing, as far as the pretty sight of a good field of well breid hotsefl/ with gaily attired jockeys, gamely contending for the premier position, goes, and also the ple/isaut sight of a happy, good humoured crowd, and we have always, advocated holding a meeting. We believ© a racing • olob helps the advertising of a district &b much as any ether action that could be taken, and for that readon should receive the support of those interested in the place. Great objection i« held by some to' any sort of horse--racing as h^B something wholly wrong, but the evil'that races sbow up, would iri the absence of that sport, crop up in so'me Otlier line, where it would be less liable to observation, and therefore more dangeroui£ In' a layge 'nuncbet 1 of people collected together, there are ■ bound to be iound sOiue black sheep, 'fixit because that is so, it' dbe« not stand to reason that the others who are, not ..black,. . should be debarred, froifrfchfe Moffijti ot tie div, 6f. that tn'e^'AwJ^Ssarn^ irast Wcome i gamblers; bbcause some . invest too heavily; - Prjfctifee ii& ate : told ' is far better 'tihfcn pfr*eoept, ' arid' 'instead 0 r t'-^se \yho, declaim ou the enormities l try '■ be • ' ■• w ifcneased %t if race meeting, ' staying *wayv nnd repeating the statements told them of ptrhapsiona eweedibglynO'S^pusi 'incident; they o«jga«f;,to th^ wefcti»g and by good fellowship attracted the weak ones to their side, and by iheir abstention from any act they could condemn, make themselves an ex- j ample t© these, tb>n they would find '

that^pCenjoyhbltf- day can be passed, and|that more than .half the evils they dreaded existed only in their, distoi-ted imaginations We there- ; fore tope that the Jubilee meeting of the Foxton Racing Club tomoorrow will be a success in every way. We know that they have as "rarashidtn their power, elidS&vtfiirM" to provide good sport, good accomod'tiaon and good musio, they ca'tt d 6 nQ more. It rests with the public to show the- appreciation of the-^wtien-of the club, and we hope to see, not onb^tlr&'heads of the tofhUyplfiA Itiss .wmwe'-ftinHy present, *as ladies am children enjoy a race as much as jthe male folks, and areiar Jess likely to.de^elope that " knowingciesa " wnich the head of a family imagines he possesses, directly te .enters a course and' sees ' a raceiiorse, and therefore are more likely ; to , leaya with ihbre ; cheerful reminisencies of the day out. ; ' ' ' ;