A MAORI RACE MEETING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 103, 24 January 1908, Page 11

A MAORI RACE MEETING.

-i- ~— »,. ■ ; • ; AMUSING INCIDENTS. ; A SAGACIOUS HORSE AND'A MEASURING STICK. . (PBQII OVR SPECIAti CORRESPONDENTS.) An amusing special,, descriptive of a Maori race mooting, appears in the "Herald," The Writer,says i—The usual fraternity to bo seen "onj.lhe outside" at othcrraco meetings had foroljatjiered— -two or three hundred of them, ranging from the city man' to the shabby ' tout. ,' In and out amongst the throng passed Maori phlegmatic, gravely, and with infinite', circumlocution,, going about their various' 1 businesses as though serious matters \were'. afoot. But there was. no hurry,. and. the uninitiated pressman commenced to take . his bearings. Nothing' visible was there; to indicate where the races were to be ruh from or to whero the numbers were to go up,, or from whence the flag signals were to be',flown. " ; The' Secretary.'; • '/In the middle of the ground a large Maori in . straw Eat and his shirtsleeves .TV'is- helping two -wahines to supply thirsty visitors with soft tack and watcrmeloh. 'To him the scribo appealed. The largeriMaori; turned out {o'be the secretary, a;most'obliging person; but, preoccupied; lie 'pointed out a shed at a little distance, whero between two roughly nailed up bits of kauri threfe' mystic numbers had been hung. '."That the first race," he said. "Three ■starters.",:

"Oh," said his questioner, "and where do they, stick.,up the results?" V .. "Saine placfi," was the.laconic reply. , . _In;the shed upoirwhich appeared'the numbers. the three riders donned their colours. ,a:very useful shed; everybody used stewards;'and public. It was dressing-room', and stewards''stand in one. Out of it popped a Maori horseman. He wore a scarlet jacket with a white' stripe, and a pair of long pants. "Lcn&jme a coat," he cried. "I got to make u{), 31b':" Someone filled the order, and he mt it ori'tho tails of the red jacket, jauntily' flying .in the wind from beneath it as he rode J away.. •. !

A ( Sagacious Horsf.. ; ' The ,6orso is a sagacious animal. Someone has uttered. the same remark beforo, but that does not make it any the less true. An instance! of the sagacity of a horse who was entered, for a pony race will, now be given. TJie Stigry of this pony raco deserves to go down to posterity. It was tho third raco of the da,y. ; Tho pressman had received priceless inform&tion .is to the two former events froni 'a.'small boy with, a black body, a red tis'.arid white nature. He' learnt from him, in consultation prior to the pony race, that the bSst."horse 1 , 1 in it was a certain bay . mare; J, but," said the knowing youth, "if she wins iho'll?be measured after the race." Now,v'thd_' unsophisticated scribe hadn't tho remotest idea why i,t would not be good for the'bay niare to be measured, but he winked ; slyly .sit his ' young friend to cover up any ; sign of ignorance he: may have displayed. The mystery was explained afterwards. To corflmencfe with, there was what the pressman .would, have described as a bad start.. ■The starter had scarcely smacked bis hip be- ' fore the bay mare rose up on her hind legs, with ..her mouth open. When she did get : was well in the rear, v Curiously • enough, she forgot to shut her mouth again •during .the, race, and this inducejl some unkind people to say nasty things about tho , jockey.'./; That measuring business was blamed-for it, too. Anyway, the brown geld'ing won. ' '"• . ■

A Protest.. ~. '. ■ He was'having his photograph taken with the pr.oud owner ' ; up," when there came a •»; rush df! th - crowd, towards the stewards! : dressing, weighing shed, and a- heated Maori on the-grey gelding, whiclf had run second, urged his nag towards the shed door, with a cry of. "protest" on his lips. Someone stuck • a tattered and faded flag up over the lintel of ;the"door. "What's the blue flag for?" . ■ -asked a spectator on the outskirts of tho now jocularly excited crowd. "Blue," scoffed tho man nearest to him; "it's green. Thehjljia^protest." •■■■' ; A Maori ; of proportions which a French--man would describe as ■ "embonpoint" lei- ■ surely thrust his huge bulk through the mass of pakeha spectators who were storming the shed in : thoir desire to hear the fun. "Where are the stewards?" he said. I'Voin • 'several points'of the compass coatless Maoris' 'figuring in the required capacity on the pro- , gramme: edged their way into the shea of iriany.'uses.. "Run it again ; no race," yelled the mOb ; deliriously out on the green. A • Maori* backer of the bay mare waxed wrath. "Wha'; for?" he gesticulated. "No race, I tell, you. '■ I go for the police. The mouth come,like that wide open, ■■ and he proceeded to .give- an imitation' with his hands of the open mouth'of a horse. Whilst the stewards were.in the shed deliberating over the protest la 'pakeha official (self-constitutcd, unless the-rite card lied) was measuring the grey that , had come in'second. A length of timber with a rough cross-piece nailed on at a pony's' lawftil hoight was requisitioned. The' grey" passed- comfortably beneath, amidst cheers from' the onlookers. WinneV. Disappears. , ; Theri(the winner was wanted. He had disappeared —not a whinny betrayed his hidingFast passed the moments, but ho could not' be found. The scribo was beginning 'tb.wonder if it could bo possiblo, as was hinted'iin some quarters, that the owner did the brown measured. Of a snddoi: ' an,, exultant yell arose, "Here he is," and eohieoiie dived into a clump of willows and dragged.forth the missing quadruped. Was it .' : a horse or a pony? • The all-important question took a lot of settling. Eventually the linm .with tho stick declared that it failed-by'three or four inches to pass under the cross-bar. The rows was brokoit to the stfewards, who were about to decide that the protest' must bo upheld, when the owner of tho' honso tha.t had been declared not to bo a'pony Appealed to the'" secretary. The secretary,,-assuming supremo powers, and oycr-ricling . those of the stewards, Seized the measuring stick. The people surged around Mm, 'and-;' the * brown gelding sent them ■ scattering .with uplifted hoofs. Tha Measuring Stick. He VtMßftrl tn dread that measuring stick. Tie fw'.ild aof stand still. • Ultimately, the Ra«ftcWu3 animal espied a ditch. He promptly stood in the bottom of it, stood there like a lamb':'/ TJt?' timber measuro was 'placed on the grtoind; it, rested on the bank of the ditch...is tb<: gelding had designed that it should. The cross-bar showed inches above hivbwl>; "He's pony all right," decided the tccre'nry. (tinging the stick down, and tho 'tiding was seen to furtivoly wink at his awiier- as tho latter led him away. In the - shout .(that went up were mingled cxecra- ■ tions. One )inan said something reflecting on the secretary, but the secretary, he so firrrtly carried out his work, and with such' supreme contempt for all other authority, said nothing. It was not his fault if ..the-brown gelding did stand in a ditch. It' merely proved that a horse's sagacity is equal even to making out that he is a pony.

Everyone has heard of "Pelorus Jack," thfe fish that pilots steamers in tho Sounds and is specially protected by Act of Parliament, says the "Southland News." An lnvorcargill citizen, who spent the Christmas holidays up: at Rotorua, has returned with &' story that seems even older than the achievements of the Pelorus celebrity. Singular to say, it also relates to fish. During his rambles with rod and lino he came across a trout-laden stream, containing several small" boiling springs, situated close in to the banks. This suggested a very simple way. of obtaining the mid-day meal. When the'trout were hooked all ho had to do was to' work' them with tho rod up to one of the hot springs, where a few minutes sufficed to boil them to a turn, when they were gently hauled in and lifted out, steaming hot, on a dish. The narrator says he put in one of the jolliest picnics in his life on the banks of that river—he only had to carry bread and a little pepper and salt, and he was neyer worried about getting to his hotel in time for dinner.