FREAK WAGERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22193, 21 August 1935, Page 8

FREAK WAGERS

[WHEELBARROW CBAJIE SKIPPING AND DIVING CONTESTS IN AUSTRALIA ' [FKOU OUIt OWN CORRESPONDENT I Si'DNEY, Aug. 15 Messrs. Parkinson and Evans, the participants of the " barrow-pusliiiig " wnger contest from Beechworth to Mount Buffalo, Victoria, have much o answer for. During and since their ;■ontost, barrow-pushers have been trying to win wagers of a freakish nature all over Australia. Scarcely a town has escaped the craze. No hospital cf rnival is complete without a " wheelharrow Derby." Thin men wheel fat men, young men wheel old, and old wheel young. The epidemic, one notices, has braved the Tasman crossing, as New Zealand is not' immune. ■ There have been variants of the brrrow contests, but all have been inspired by the now world-renowned Beechworth contest. One man successfully wagered that ho would drive a rooster a mde nlong a busy road. Another pulled a comrade a considerable distance in a sulky. A wheatstack labourer carried two full bags; of wheat up a steep h 11But getting back to the barrow. Mr. Darwin, a member of the Colling vcod City Council, Melbourne, undertook to wheel a friend from the Victorian capital to Sydney. He is now past Ihe border between the two States, wth nearly half of his journey covered. Most amazing of all these !r«ak wager "stunts" is that of tho man who has undertaken to skip from ,bourne to Sydney. Ho is Tom Morris, who says he hopes to skip the 580 miles between the two cities in 35 days, and he, too, is finding no difficulty in <eoping to the schedule ho has mspj>ed out of skipping 18 miles a day. Skipping is anything but child s play to Tom Morris. It's an art. Bosiues skipping records, ho holds swimming and diving laurels. He has announced that when he reaches Sydney, he •vill dive off the Harbour Bridge. Morris ence (lived off Westminster Bricge, London, with hands and feet tied, ;ind in tho same awkward state he swam five and a-half miles in tho Maribjrnong River, Victoria. Likewise, he "leaped from Princess Bridge, Melbourne, in bonds. Mr. Morris once swam eight miles breast-stroke from Kaugaroo Islanc to Cape Jarvis,, South Australia, in vaters where sharks are common. He i'so once planned to swim seven miles f *Olll Circular Quay, Sydney, to Manly, but the police stopped him, and they will probably stop his bridge dive stunt . also. About 18 months ago, Ihoj stopped an American sailor from the Monterey from attempting a similar feat, after had made a nve-c oJlars bet that he Would do it.