A TRIP TO TINUI RACES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1326, 13 March 1883, Page 2

A TRIP TO TINUI RACES.

On Thursday morning last at 5 o'clock I toolc' an inside; ticket on board of N eil & Cookery's coach, and soon found myself bowling along, the road at a rattling pace, the ribbons being in the hands of the experienced' Cookery, The road to the Taueru was. in very good condition, so we were not long in-reach-ing that place. After baiting the ' horses, and preparing the'inner man ! for a long,'journey another start was made, aud everything went pretty smoothly,for several miles, when the road became very; lotigh: this was in consequence of it' being newly formed, and no metal placed ornt.; The Continual traffic of the bullock drays after the late rain had cut deep ruts in it, which a few days hot weather had baked.From these few.causes great.effects were felt, as we were constantly changing our positions against our- wills, sometimes ; in a vertical and sometimes in a horizontal direction, each change being attended with sundry knocks and chatings, which, by the

time our destination was reached, were numerous and sore. Tinui is situated on a small flat, .through which a stream or river has cut a deep serpentine course, with but very little water in it at present. Ihe village lies .to' the left of the main road leading to Castlepoint, and has every requisite for public convenience, viz., a'church, town

hall, police station, post'arid telegraph offices, two stores, blacksmith, school, accommodation house and hotel, After diverging from the main road the

hostelry, was. reached in. a:few minutes."' At about 10.30 a crowd was awaiting to make a star&.for the course, everything being in a bustle and confnsion, the accommodation of the hotel

being taxed to its utmost. To secure a bed and have a wash was the work of a few minutes, and then, having, to wait a bit for the coach; I was enabled to have a look round. Extensive preparations were being made on every side, several, line sucking' jigs igave their last squeal that morning, and were in an advanced state of dressing, fowls geese were being plucked on every hand: one individual to combine business with pleasure sat by the road-side to pluck one of the latter, and to watch the antics of "the boys," who were up to all kinds of innocent pranks. The two geese (the plucked and plucker) were occasionally enveloped in down, and when a kindly breeze watted it among the crowd it gave the road in front of the hotel the appearance of having had a "cock" fight 011 a large scale earned on there that morning, and these added to the numerous shepherds' dogs running about, tlic crowd of horses and men, made up a scene that was in every sense picturesque and exhilarating. At last we started and soon reached the course;, which is situated .about one and a half miles from the hotel, along the Castlepoint road. It is splendidly situated, two sides of it being bounded by low hills, the other

two sides by the river, It is a toi toi flat, quite level, but as it is in its natural state, is rather rough, and tlip rain of the previous few-days-had made it heavy, especially on the opposite side to the winning post, You have been told of the successful racing that was held, how, among other races,' the " Cup" was wrested from Mischief in the last stride by Jack Tar, and how the game maie Ninette wore the pretty little filly Gabble down in the straight and won the Maiden by about half a length. On returning to the hotel about fivo o'clock there was every indication of a lively evening being passed, the bottled up fun of some of the boys shewing itself in various ways, To wash before t?a was a task that required some .patience, for if you were not bothered about- every two minutes by someone who " wanted a rinse" you urnnli-l lin vnw liinlrv. Tf t.lin rinSfi wns

someone who " wanted a rinse" you would be very lucky, If the rinse was a task how about getting teal That was

a caution, and required .patience and perseverance "on ~ a very extended scalo. At last I found a vacant seat,

and- there being plenty - :of. provisions, made a good meal. As I had often been told o( thoroughness ofTinui, 1 expected to see some of it. 011 this occasion, but was very much surprised to find such an orderly lot: of. men ; I don't mean' to say they were angels, or that they were quiet—far from it, for of all the rows I've heard they licked all—but it. was only innocent'fun. 'ln one room there was a concertina man, with a squeaker accompaniment, playing merrily,'whilst about 'a dozen couples were footing, it.iu good, time, and being all of the sterner sex,'there was more row than is usually'heard in a ball-room. Iu an adjoining room a jovial party were,enjoying;. themselves by singing, and the energetic manner in which, they labored through the choruses often created more noiso than harmony, and the elevated position of soloist (011 tlie table) enabled him to modulate or swell the strength of the ." coal-box" (as the chorus-was termed) as tho spirit of the- song -demanded, using his hat as a baton. In another room there was a party who, by the aid of a piano accompaniment, managed to something like'iannony, and passed a very; enjoyable evening. Now and then a . temporary stoppage would be caused by tin aspiring singer popping in and! trying'just a "little ditty,". which, through, being started with'moreforce tliani expression, ;gene- : rally finished about the second or third linej- greatly to jihe reliefiof-those.-pre- ' "Bent.- There weri .two'other rooms, in which those who. were, inclined to be quiet passed the evening. > Those who

profeired to remain in the bar often tried a stanza, but it was a melancholy!.' failure, clearly demonstrating, that Bacchus; anpl Euterpe do not always act in unision on race nights. About ;. ;: midnight I wentto bed, or at least to . : to the one reserved' for me, when :I.; found it occupied. The lucky individual expressed his-;sorrowj:becauseJiß,knew •; that 1 wouldnot care to sleep in a bed : < after he had laid on it' (how very considerate of- him; at leastf-I thought so). -, > To bunt round for somebody else's bed was my first; thought, and. very lucky,l was in finding one. To take possession and lock the door was not a long job, but to- go to sleep was, for just' as one's thoughts would be wandering away, and visions of heavenly beauties come : - dreamily floating •} through: the air, you would find yourself suddenly brought , back to . earthly tortures by tlio jovial; party below ringing :(]):..some such chorus as" Johnny will you wait for a while T. At last, when naturo had almost exhausted itself, the-hbfrible ; choruses sounded more like a sweet lullaby, and-I fell gently asleep, dreaming incessantly that I was the chairman of ;i "free and easy," and we were . passing a very harmonibiis'ijight' Next . morning I got up and took a stroll around,. There was just the; same crowd in the front of the hotel; one would have thought they had not been to roost,. judging from 1 the hvebby appearance of-their eyes, and the listless 1 manner in which tliey nioved about. 1 Some were amy'sing : themselves at . American "skittles, others trying to ' ride Punch's Pony, paying their shil- ! lings with the prospect of winning a 1 pound—a prospect-that- was never realised. ■■•Others, again, were popping 1 away to the shooting gallery, the enter- " prising proprietors undoubtedly having i in mind the old proverb about the " bird catching' the' first worm. 'Tliefli 1 games were kept goiug till anotWr r start was made for the course, where

they werocanieil on with jrist as much.

spirit. Vl .. v/ t Those who witnessed the : Hurdle Handicap, which old Kangaroopulled : off, saw some/good- horsemanship. When the flag fell Desmond,let. the old . horse get about half a length's lead, and the way in which lie nursed the field in the first round was a treat to see. When Bucket called on lohai and put on more pace, the veteran I answered Desmond's demand and still kept his lead, and/the distance he gained in his jumps' was surprising. Before the second hurdle from home was cleared it was seen that Kangaroo could win, bar accidents. Still .Bucket kept at work anil, brought his-game chesnutin a'very good second. ' The * cheering that greeted them both on weighing in was well merited, The District Handicap was a very'easy thing for Mr Carswell, seeing that' two out of the three entered were lus cattle, and the best two horses at that. The Ladies' Purse proved Libel a rank

traitor, and : had it not been for the crowd going to the inside of the course

when the Consolation was run, it is very questionable whether he would not have repeated the trick—as it was, Polling had all his work cut out in keeping him straight. Gabble has proved herself to be a game little filly, having been placed three times this meeting, and I shall be greatly surprised if she does not make a name among our district horses before long, Mischief ran well, both in the Cup and the Purse/the former being lost on the post by a short nose and the latter by about a length. The station hands' races were very lively events, and if ever horses won on their merits those did, and the amount of work'some of

jockeys did during tlie circuit was very extravagant. We returned to the hotel about six o'clock, having a

passenger aboard who had misconducted himself, 1 , and was placed under Constable Darby's caro for the night. Before he mounted the coach he gave the police an exhibition of his skill in removing the handcuffs, and to do him credit it was very smartly done, he merely giving tliem a twist and then struck them on the tier of the wheel, which was an instantaneous " open sesame" proving that it was not the first timo ho had worn such jewellery, s There, was. just as much bother in getting, a-. rinse as there was the previous' evening : and more bother to get into the dining-room, so, to avoid tlio crush in the passages, I went to the back of tho premises and got in the window, ; not without-a, barney with the waiter though, so that by the time the door was thrown open and the crush let in, I was safely seated at the table discussing the merits of the leg of one of tlio geese. After tea the "boys" were quite as noisy as last evening but it was not so genuine, there appeared to bo a kind of worn out expression jn their merriment; the concertina could hot with'all its persuasive power, infuseany go in the dancers ; punch's squeak got monotonousa' song or step dance now and then infused a little life into them, but it was only to feel the lull ; after, to be more dull. One by one they gradually went out to seek some new. amusement, till at last all I could see in tho room was a wooden leg asleep on the man strapped to it ; , this - the day before reckoned lie was as any man this side of Masterton; blw he was'nt now; In the piano room, the harmony was' in full swing, and everybody had made up their minds for an enjoyable evening, when as one of the audience outside was taking a peep through the window he got a playful, hoist, from the rear, and his' head unexpectedly came through. This of • course, broke.. the..gla f ss,..ancj. the haimony t .for aftei* jthisj the " Gipsy's Warning" was unheeded, and a chord struck' on that piano seemed very flat after the sharp rattle of the glass.' room a com-; pany would get through several songs and choruses, but all of a sudden there would be a desire to join another party till at last there was only genuine singing crowd in the house, ! and as this' was led' by a well-known'lnenib&r of the Tenui christy troupe, ffho; had an ; unlimited repertoire of comic songs, which lie delivered from off the top of a table they were kept constantly on the go, and \vefit'to]bed they appeared as though ,11107, had no thought of to-morrow. r r;had b ;l»een iri'bed many minutes'befo're I" became 1 aware that a party were on : tho track !• for outside - sport. • After ; .woi-iying

"Punclx t s Pony ".in tlio dark for some time they turned their attention to sundry sleepoi-s, wlio, failing to find a bed had curled themselves up in the traps that were about, those : were quietly wheeled up to the side of a gorso hedge and the occupants upset in it. ■ Their feelings on being thus awakened can be better imagined than described, the only thing I can vouch for are the yells 1 that came from them which reminded me of the rows mado by the wild "Indians" Hint I used to soo in the shows when I was. a boy. I got to sleep somehow, and did not awake till nearly breakfast time. When I came down things had tamed down considerably, those who had enjoyed themselves during the night were evidently asleep, for there was an absence of any of the larrikin element, so I was at Isst enabled to get a quiet meal, and then pay another visit to the course when the match between Zulu and Uncle Tom was run. for £2O aside. It was expected that (he latter would run away from the start and never be caught, but those who had backed Uncle got sadly slipped up, for Zulu got the iead and came home a good winner. As this was the last event in Tinui we wcro not long in getting aboard our coach and retracing our way back to Masterton, the inconvenience caused through the roughness of the road being felt quite as much as on the journey up. I almost forgot to mention that there were" select" balls held on both race nights at the Town Hall, and being "select" I of course was not there. The first night was a very spirited affair, but the second was a failure, the ladies did not attend, and the gentlemen after waiting till about 10 o'clock came away.