RACECOURSE INCIDENTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 14 March 1910, Page 6

RACECOURSE INCIDENTS.

NATIVE WITH A WHIP

MAN CHASED BY MAORIS

On the Dannevirke racecourse on Thursday there were two exciting unrehearsed incidents. The first occurred at the entrace gates. A race was about to start, and so anxious was the crowd on the road to get inside that a number of people rushed the gates and others commenced to climb over the wire fence on either side of it. Two' mounted natives were stationed here, however, to keep any who had not paid for admission outside, and one of them, of considerable avoirdupois, was armed with a heavy stock-whip which he commenced to use—seemingly without discrimination. Be this as it may, two men, each of whom held a complimentary ticket, one of them being an owner of a horse racing at the meeting, had their Panama hats1 cut with the whip; and a third, who, so far as could be ascertained, had paid for admission, had his cheek laid open and with a second cut was clean knocked out, and fell upon the ground. At this moment a rush was made to get at the native, but he dug his spurs into his mount and cleared.

The second incident took place just after the conclusion of the seventh race, when a man, allegedly; attempted to rob some Maoris of a dividend. For a few moments the language heard in front of the grandstand was sufficiently lurid to lay the dust, and meanwhile a burly native was paying unsought attention to the man's head. The latter then concluded that the sooner he vanished the better, > and after running along the passage way under the steps leading down from the stand, he made for open country with a host of natives at his heels. After following a breast-high scent in the paddock, his pursuers quickly viewed him, and with a chash of melody each strived to be the first to pull him down. The quarry now doubled, and attempted to elude the pack by getting amongst the carriages and traps near the entrance gates. Here, however, a local constable barred his progress, and within a short time he was safely caged- in the local lock-up. It was just as well for him that there was a constable present to take charge of him, for had his pursuers got hold of him he would have had a bad time.