GREAT HIKER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 165, 15 July 1938, Page 11

GREAT HIKER.

THAMES' IDENTITY.

HOBART TOWN JACK.

«SOONER KUlf THAK RIDE."

Hobart Town Jack! Shad*. o f old Thames, how the name rolls back the years to conjure up memories of the rip-roaring goldfield daye of 60 years agn! Days rich i n men of featly strength, rich in nicknames bestowed by the men themselves, robust and rugged beyond the common, upon a few of outstanding physical gifts.

HoLart Town Jack was one of the most talked-of identities of the Thames goldfield days, and hie fame was as wide as the Auckland province. He is one of the great figures of Thames folk-lore, about whose feats of endurance as a runner many tales are told.

I here are men still living who can hear witness that he was the orin-inal Inker of Auckland fame. Perhaps" not of New Zealand, for one Joe Scott, of Otago, made world records in walking round about the time that Hobart Town Jack was a Thames idol. But there are rot a few old-timers ready to maintain that in the latter a world champion distince runner was buried in Thames; that if this same John Gallagher had been born 30 or 40 years later he could have won the Olympic marathon race for New Zealand. But. of course, he would not then have been known as Hobart Town Jack.

"Yes, I knew Hobart Town Jack, and he was one of the best-known identities of the Thames goldfield in the 'sixties and 'eighties," said an old Thames resident yesterday, when informed that Mr. John Gallagher had died at Onehunga the previous day, at the age of 84 years. / Everywhere Per Boot. "He went everywhere per boot, would rather walk, or run, long journeys than ride on horseback or in the coach. It was his particular hobby to race the coach from Thames to Paeroa. He would set off running along the road at J the same time as the coach, would ! follow along the road, and then beat I the coach into Paeroa. He did that not; once, but over and over again,' and, of course, the feat of .beating the coach over a road journey of 22 miles was one 1 of the wonders of the goldfielde." Race Men on Horseback. The informant said he did not know how the nickname Hobart Town Jack arose, but he was certain that John Gallagher was not a Tasmanian from Hobart. Hobart Town Jack, he said, was a strong, Athletic fellow, well able to take care of himself at fisticuffs, and of wonderful gameness and endurance. The athletic track did not eeem to appeal to him, but he was ready at any time to back himself for a roadrace against the «oach over a distance, and also against men, on horseback." "I once knew him to take on a race against a man on horseback, a Mr. Wells. He was given a etart—l don't juet remember how much-it wae^—and the race was from Waiomo -to Tararu,a distance of seven to nine miles. And Jack beat him." Hobart Town Jack alee had. another characteristic, a peculiar on* for a man who lived the normal life of men in the rough, goldmining days. He never need etrong language. If something annoyed him, related the old-timer, it was • "jolly beggar," or * wee beggarin' this," or "the begarrin' that." On the goldflelde, in consequence of the oddity in a miner who made no pretence of being different from his mates, he was called "the beggarin' man." There wae another most unusual race, it wae related, which Hobart Town Jack won:—a race against the "Old Man with the Scythe." A few years ago a man was found drowned on the foreshore at Auckland and was identified and buried as Hobart Town Jack. A little later Jack, -who had been living away from home in the Clevedon district, turned up. But the handicap of years eventually proved too great and hie grim opponent hae at last caught up with, and gathered in, the indomitable old runner.' Hobart Town Jack hat run his la«t race.