CALEDONIAN SPORTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4301, 4 January 1875, Page 3

CALEDONIAN SPORTS.

Sir, — I must beg leave to say a few words in reply to your correspondent “ Old Sport.” There is evidently a good deal of envy and ill-will vented on me by a few professional runners and their friends. Since I had the luck to defeat them at the late Foresters’ Fete they can say nothing bad enough about me. As to the spiking, any one who saw the race can prove that it was accidental. The course is so rough and the turns so abrupt that the most careful of runners may make a falsa step, as I did, Ido not think the public will disbelieve me when I say it was purely accidental, and no one feels more sorry than myrelf. I, with other winning competitors, collected a sum of money for Mr. Skellie; but'to my surprise, when I applied for my money, the secretary of the sports committee informed me that lie had paid £2 10s. of my prize money to Skellie, on account of Ida being unfortunate. I think this is rather a cool way of dealing with other people's money. If they had wished to make Mr, Skellie a present they might have done so from the funds of the society, and not from my hard won prize money. I have run many times in Wellington, and have always ran honestly, and have never been mixed up in any disreputable swindle, and I leave the public to judge whether I have been treated fairly or not. The fact that no protest was entered against roe on the ground is sufficient evidence that tiie affair was the result of an accident.—l am, &c., James Mora.v. Wellington, Dec, 30, 1874.