THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 48, 24 February 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

What with cricket and, horse-racing tlie week' has been more lively than usual, and there has positively been a little excitement^ an elemeut that in Nelson life is usually most conspicuous by its absence. Our Wanganui visitors, who proved rtop powerful for the Wakefield team ia-utbe cricket field, appear to have enjoyed their trip to Nelson, and are profuse in their acknowledgements of the hospitable reception they met with, in -the Waimea, their appreciation of which they expressed by submitting their entertainers to< a decided defeat. at cricket, a, fact for which the Wakefield men should really feel grateful ,. for,, in the abs^nce^ofi arjiyi club been playedJbut in' a molt friendly 1 spirit, in the province able to successfully cope

with them, they were, like Levers Irishman, becoming "blue mouldy for the want;, : : pf; a ha{ing." :; " The match appears to hjiV.o* and 'both'' the victors and the conquered seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their game. The same district proved the great point of attraction on Wednesday, on the occasion of the most successful steeplechase meeting ever known in the province. We have no reason to be ashamed of the sport we were able to offer to our visitors, as every event was warmly and honestly contested, and although we could not, in the majority of the races, boast of thoroughlytrained, high-bred horses, with jockeys on their backs in brilliaot-hued jackets, it is questionable whether on any course in New Zealand keener competition or more evenly matched animals could be found. It is clear that the love of sporting, which several years ago caused the Nelsou races to be the first in the colony, has not yet died out from our midst, but that it is only the want of funds which prevents our slill taking the lead in these matters, aud after the success that attended last Wednesday's meeting wo may yet hope to have at least one day's good racing in tho year, and the Waimea South Jockey Club which, as a youthful institution, necessarily had many difficulties to contend against a year or two ago. may now congratulate itself on having overcome all the minor troubles attendant upon such societies when first formed, and. has entitled • itsclt to the. confidence' of the sporting public so far as to fully justify them in entrusting it with, a far larger sum of money to be expended in prizes than it has yet had at its disposal. Complaints are to be heard of the absence of auy really good course for flat racing, but my own idea is that this is /not altogether a matter (or regret, as- the Club tvbs inaugurated with the sole intention of promoting steeplechasing, and if its members will be content for a few" years to confine their attention to this particular branch of racing, they may hope to attain such a standing in the colony that in the. course of time they will be in a position to successfully extend their efforts in the direction of fiat racing. At present they are not in a position to do so, and it will be wise on their part not to attempt it, but to devote,. the greater part of the subscriptions, that I am sure will be more liberally given on future occasion?, to increasing the stakes for the principal event of the day, leaving the ordinary races, as is now the case, to hacks, as by following such a course they will induce the owners of horses from the other provinces to take part in the sport, and will thus cause their annual meetiDg to be better and more favorably known f hrougout New Zealand. I admit that, in order to do this, our sporting community will have to do battle witn their pride,; for it is a said come-down to find our flat races confined to hackneys, when at one time we were accustomed to see the': ; best horses in the southern hemisphere assemble on our course, but we must accept pur position, and be prepared to admit that in matters pertaining to racing it now only remains for us to begin again de novo. One thing connected with the late meeting should not be passed over in silence, namely, the discovery made by the stewards that some one had, previous to the commencement of the races, taken the trouble to go round and saw through the ends of the rails in some of the fences, so that they were held in their places by a very few fibres, which, of course, would give- way on the slightest touch. Attempts of this kind cannot be too strongly deprecated, and it would be well if the names of those who were guilty of the act could be ascertained aud made public There is no reason, whatever, why fair dealing For remainder of news see fourth, page.

should not exist in racing as well as in any other sport. Our neighbors on the West Coast have been busily engaged of late in entertaining two distinguished visitors, the Premier of the colony, and the Superintendent of the province. The first occasion of a visit from one of the Ministers has been turned to account by some of the leading inhabitants of Westport, who have drummed into Mr. Fox's ears such strange stories and unconscionable misrepresentations that when he leaves the Coast and once more settles down quietly in Wellington, where he will have time to think over all he has beard, he will have a difficult task before him in sifting out the few grains of truth from the mass of falsehood that has been laid before him. Up to the present time he appears to have fallen into the trap laid for him by Messrs. O'Conor and others, and although he states with some little degree of pride that he was one of the first white men to cross the Buller, and to perform other feats of a similar nature, he appears to be strangely ignorant of the geography of the country with which he professes to have so intimate an acquaintance. Some of the gentlemen who desire that Westport should be specially benefitted at the cost of other portions of the goldfields have actually had the temerity to infer that the Upper Buller district does not lie to the southward of a line drawn from the mouth of the Karamea to Mount Arthur, and Mr. Fox, so far as can be learned from the reports of his speeches that appear in the local papers, has been induced to endorse this statement. It is a fortunate circumstance that Mr. Curtis is following close upon his footsteps, as he is thus able to controvert the rash statements made by these one-ideaed gentlemen, and accepted as gospel by the Premier. But it is to be feared that the mischief is already done, and that it has been decided that the money intended by the Assembly to be expended upon improving the communications generally on the Nelson South-west Goldfields, shall be laid out in one particular part of them to the detriment of the remaining portion. A knowledge of the geographical positions of the various parts of the colony, so far as this province is concerned, does not appear to be Mr. Fox's forte. F.