PLOUGHING MATCH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XL, Issue 186, 28 July 1876, Page 2

PLOUGHING MATCH.

After a lapse of five years the ploughing matches under the auspices of the Nelson Agricultural Association were resumed yesterday, and we trust, after the eminent success that attended the meeting, to see them become annual institutions. However, if this is to be the case, the public must come forward to assist the Association, who are quite unable to meet the expenses of both a Show and a Ploughing Match out of their ordinary funds, which must be supplemented by assistance from outside. Yesterday was one of those lovely winter days of which hardly any place in the world but Nelson cm boast of, and the large paddock, the property of Mr Canning, in which the match was held, presented a lively scene on our arrival on the ground by the special train, which Uf fc Nelson at one o'clock, carrying as many passengers as could possibly be stowed away in the four carriages of which it consisted. There was a goodly number of visitors from all parts which gradually in* creasad during the afternoon, until several hundreds of people had gathered to watch the trial of skill between the twenty-three ploughmen who had entered in the several classes as follows:— For the wheel plough competition, ten; for ihe swing plough, three; for the boys' match, Bix; and for the double furrow plough, five. Those entered in the first three clasies were to plough half an acre, and those in the fourth, three-quarters of an acre. Each competitor evidently had his little circle of friendß, who loyally backed th'ir man, and steadily refused to see any weak points in his work, but casual observers who were not influenced by any such considerations were towards the end of the match to be found collecting round the half acres allotted to C. Eyles of Richmond, and T. Russ of Waimea West, who gradually assumed the place of first favorites in the betting that was cirried on to a mill extent. On Ihe whole, the p'oughiog was not so good as we could have w ; sbei to see. Some there tertainly was extremely good, but on the other hand there was some that was decidedly bad, a very glaring error displaying itself in por<i< ns of the work, namely, the varying width of the " lands," some being at least two y-uds wider than their immediate neighbors, thus rendering anything like reguhrity in sowing an utter impossibility. The furrows in several instances were by no means neatly and evenly 1-dd, and although in many cases this was to be accounted for by the stony character of the ground, in others the same excuse could not be pleaded; The boys' ploughing was very fair on tha whole, but there was plenty of room for the improvement which we hope to see brought about by these matches being held regularly every year. The swing p'oughs did some very pretty work, and the Judges must have experienced some difficulty in deciding who was to tike the first, and who the second prize. If we were to strike an average between the best and the worst work in the double furrow class, and accept that average as the character of the whole we should be doing great injustice to four out of the five competitors, as the workmanship of the fifth was such as to cause people to wonder what could possibly have induced him to take part in a match. There certainly was an artistic beauty about the waviness of hia farrows that formed a etrong contrast to the regular straightness of those to be seen in other parts of the field, but it was not the ariist but the ploughman who wbb expected to take part in the competition. At three o'clock the judges. Messrs Joshua Bird, C. Stratford, and John Smith commenced theix duties, and it was not until five o'clock that they were able to make koown their awards, which were as follows:— Class Ist— wheel ploughs— Ist prize, £5; 2nd, £3; 3rd, £1. ' ' T. Russ, Waimea West . , _ H. ChallU, Stoke . .2 C. Eyles, Richmond . \ 3 The ploughing of W. Russ was also commended. G. Russ, Waimea West; Edward Cresswell. Stoke; T. Sheat, Richmond; T. Gapper, Waimea East; T. Brown, Waimea East; and T. Giblin, Stoke, also competed. Class 2nd— wheel ploughs, for boys under 20 years of age— lst prize, £5; 2nd, £3; 3rd, F. Russ, Waime* West . . 1 J. Bell, Waimea West . . 2 W. Robinson, Waimea West '. 3 J. Silcock, Wnimea, East, and F. Sizglekow, Waimea West, also competed. Class 3rd— double-furrow ploughs— lat prize* £5; 2nd, £3; 3rd, £1. John Satherley, Waimea West l Christian Schwasa „ 2 W. H. Fleming ,[ [ 3 James Connor and T. Nicholson also took part in the match. Class 4th-swing ploughs— Ist prize, £5; 2nd. £3; 3rd, £1. ' ' J J. Leighton, Waimea East . . I W. Biggar . . 2 John Paynter, Stoke ... 3 The Champion prize of £5 for the best ploughing executed at the competition irrespective of class, was won by T. Russ, with a single-furrow wheel plough. A special prize of £2, which was offered 6 r ii StJ"' tea ?' was fllrarde d to James Bell, of Waimea Fast, by the judges— Messrs Drummond, Fowler, and Haycock— Mr C Schwass, of Waimea West, receiving honorable mention. The makera of the winning ploughs wereOf the single furrow swing and wheel Messrs Ransome and Simms, and of the double furrow Hornsby. The arrangements made by the stewards were excellent, and the great care and attention devoted to their by no means easy task by the judges cannot be too highly commended. The arrangements made by the railway authorities, too, were all that could be desired, and to the running of the special train may be attributed a large portion of that success which is dependent upon the number of spectators on such occasions. We trust that we shall not lay ourselves open to a charge of transgressing the boundary line between private and public matters if we make mention of the generous hospitality' of Mr and Mrs Canning, at whose house a hearty welcome and a table which, if it did not groan ought to have done so under the weight of ■ good things with which it was loaded, awaited ( all who desired to take advantage of them.

The Rangiora Standard understands that a block of no less than 12,000 acres of land was purchased by the Hon W. Robinson, in the Horsley L»owns District, Canterbury, a few days petore the budget was delivered. Thia is one of the largest single sales effected by the "Waste Lands Board of that province for many years past. De Murska (says the Argus) on her first appearance at the Odd-Eellows' Hall last evening met with a reception ia all respects befittiug an artiste of such fame. The weather was bleak and wintry in the extreme, but the desire to hear a songstress of such reno wu overcame all other considerations, and the audience was as numerous and fashionable as might have been expected on a midsummer eve. On Saturday evening, on the arrival of the train at the Upper Hutt, or when about 300 yards from the railway station, the engine driver saw what he first supposed to be.a man on the railway line. He immediately reversed the engines, but before the 'speed was sufficiently slackened, the eugine came m contact with what proved to be a horse. The cow-catcher caught the animal, and turned him over, throwing him off the line, but in doing so one of the legs was cut off close to the fetlock.—Poit. Two young men, who were at Terawitilast week saw a large Octopus. They took it at first to be a lot of conger eels amongst the rocks, a few feet below the. tide mark. They procured sticks to catch them with, when they found it was (to use their own words) "a fish like the top of a round table, with a dozen suckers." They say it was about three feet across, and the suckers were about two feet long. They managed with great difficulty to get it ashore. At times, it would hold on to the rock with the suckers, and when it did so, it was as much as the two of them could do to move it. — Post A letter has been received by the Secretary of the Wellington Eootball Club from the Nelson Club, stating that the latter will leave for Wellington to play the return annual match on the 10th of next month at the latest. If it is possible, they will leave asiearly as the 6th. We understand that the Nelsonians have been practising very hard lately, and have every hope of coming off victorious. This will be no difficult matter, if the Wellington team be not a little more regular in their practices. If the latter get beaten, they will have themselves to blame, as they have this season shown the greatest apathy in turning out for scratch matches and general practice.^_4r^«. ~~ - """ - ~^=±^ -.fgg_^e_ l " , *'*'a | ■-■'-! mi iii u»>*kgMM, (For continuation of Newt see fourth page.