WHEELBARROW RIDE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 160, 22 June 1935, Page 2

WHEELBARROW RIDE

Four Miles in Snow MELBOURNE, June 21. Mr. Parkinson pushed the barrow up Alount Buffalo to-day', a distance of about four miles, through three inches of snow. His ankles were swathed in bandages. He has only about five miles to go with a day and a-half still in hand. Mr. Evans was chilled to the bone. He had to be massaged at intervals and blew a whistle vigorously to liven himself up. Tho Governor of Beechworth Gaol was given special permission for Mr. T. Parkinson, principal in tho Beech-worth-Buffalo wheelbarrow wager, to give an exhibition of his training for the contest in the exercise yard ot tho gaol two weeks ago. With 70 keenly interested prisoners looking on, and the 16-stonc warder. Atr. Claude French, sitting in the barrow, Air. Parkinson raced around tho yard to give an indication of his form. Because the wager has stirred the gaol more than any event in its history, and the prisoners have an exceptional interest through Mr. French, who is Air. Parkinson’s training companion on his nightly practice spurts about the town, the Governor made this special concession. Within the gaol there was onlyone topic of conversation—the chances of Air. Parkinson wheeling Air. S. Evans in his barrow to the Buffalo Plateau 51 miles away, in eight days—and. the betting among the prisoners, whoso currency is cigarettes and matches, was even keener than about the town and surrounding district. Some of the men staked three months’ supply of tobacco on tho contest. There was general sympathy for Mr. Parkinson. Ono of the prisoners, who is a decorator, has illustrated the lids of two cigar boxes with paintings of the two principals in action. One of these depicts the barrow toppling into the Buffalo Gorge, with the passenger and the pusher, and it is regarded as the most meritorious artistic work accomplished by a prisoner of the Beechworth Gaol, which has been tenanted by a number of artists.