THE WHEEL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1200, 1 March 1895, Page 28

THE WHEEL.

W.C.C. RUNS AND RACES.

March 2. —Run to Seatoun March 16. —Run to Porirua March 30. —Handicap Road Race, Taita to Telephone Exchange

SPOKES.

By "Cyclometer."

Messrs N. W. Bell and W. Castle returned to Wellington on Sunday last by the s.s. Rotorua from Nelson, after a fortnight's bicycle tour on the West Coast of the South Island. The ride was a very enjoyable one, although the roads were not in the best order, especially the other side of Belgrove, where the recent floods have converted the roads into river-beds in parts, and washed them completely away in others. The road up Arthur's Pass was also very bad, but up the Otira Gorge and along the Bealey and Waimakariri Rivers they were first-class. From Nelson the cyclists went as far as the famous Castle Hill Rocks, from whence they started on the return journey on the 18th tilt. They speak very highly of the scenery along the Buller River and the Otira Gorge, and also of The Avenue after leaving Kumara. Fine weather was experienced throughout, rain only being met with on two days, and this they managed to leave behind after a couple of hours' riding on each occasion. The total distance ridden was 540 miles, the average daily, ride being 50 miles, and the greatest distance covered in one day was 81 miles, from the Cass to Hokitika. They carried 201 b of luggage, and rode roadsters weighing 351 b; Bell bestrode a Raglan, his companion being mounted on an Oates' " Zealandia," and both machines stood the strain admirably. •

Cyclists and others interested in the bicycle events at the Championship Meeting at Napier will find a full report on pages 26 and 27 of this issue. I am informed that the cycling track which it is intended shall be laid down on the Athletic Park Company's ground at Newtown cannot be formed in time for racing upon next season. However, a firstclass grass track will be available next season, which will no.doubt be appreciated by local cyclists, as the lumps on the Basin Reserve make the going anything but pleasant. The Commercial Union Insurance Company has invested in a .£2B Raglan roadster for work in connection with the local office. In consequence of this, the clerks have become exceedingly obliging —in fact, quite eager —when messages have to be run, and the "errand boy" hasn't the ghost of a chance. The Wellington Amateur Athletic Club's sports on the Basin Reserve to-morrow should prove one of the best gatherings ever held here, and no doubt there will be a very large attendance of the public. All the principal local cyclists will compete in the bicycle races, and additional interest will be added to the events by the fact of Shorland, of Christchurch, and Stedman, of Dunedin, being among the competitors in these events. Several of the Southern cyclists who have been attending the Napier Championship Meeting passed through Wellington on Wednesday, leaving by the s.s. Penguin for Lyttelton in the afternoon.

A writer in a local paper pleads for a tax upon bicycles, one of his reasons for so doing being that dog-owners have to pay 10s per annum as a tax upon their canine friends. Speaking as a cyclist, I should not be sorry if dog-owners had to pay a tax of .£lO per annum, as those animals are the bane of the cyclist's life. He says, "The man who can afford to part with .£2O for a plaything should surely contribute his dole to the national exchequer." A plaything ! What is a dog in the majority of cases but a plaything or a fancy P However, I will concede him a point, and class them both as playthings. Now, to meet the increase in the Hospital rate, which he fears will be the result of the cycling craze, I would suggest that, as a bicycle costs from ten to to a hundred times as much as a dog, the tax upon dogs should be increased. The dog-owner should certainly be in a better position than the cyclist to pay the tax,

seeing that the cost of the former's plaything is very insignificant compared with the latter's. <ln this manner we may be able to make both ends meet; or shall we continue to let the curs make both ends meat ? The Wellington Cycling Club's run to Seatoun, which was to have taken place to-morrow, has been postponed, in consequence of the Amateur Athletic Club's sports. The run will be held on the 9th. The Hokitika Cycling Club will hold a sports meeting on April 17. The winner of the Grand Point Bicycle Handicap will receive .£l2, and the prize for the Mile Bicycle Handicap is <£3. There will also be three foot races.

With regard to the popularity of cycling generally, and particularly as to the interest it aroused at the Napier Championship Meeting, the Hawke's Bay Herald says:—" Cycling seems insidiously to have ingratiated itself with the public, and we venture to say that no better exposition a-wheel has ever been vouchsafed to a New Zealand audience than that to which the Napier public were treated yesterday. There is a thrill about a cycling event which few other contests afford. In the majority of horse, foot, and boat races, for instance, the supreme moments are those when the competitors are well in view of the post. This applies to cycling, of course, but the restless, hovering uncertainty which broods over a cycling race appears to find no parallel of enchantment in contemporary sport. ' You never can tell till the numbers are up' seems to have been accentuated by the man on the ' bike,* and the busy hum of his wheel is music sweet to the ear of average humanity."

The "Wellington drapers' annual sports meeting is to be held on the Basin Reserve next Wednesday. The programme includes two bicycle handicaps, the distances being one mile and three miles, for which a goodly number of entries have been received. H. J. Pither, the winner of the One, Five, Ten, and Twenty-five Mile Championships at the Napier Meeting, receives four gold medals and one silver medal. " Davy" Brand will ride a " Jubilee " road racer weighing 241 b in the races on the Basin Reserve to-morrow. The Twenty-five-mile Cycle Race Otago v. Southland at the Invercargi 11 Sports was won by the Otago team. The Manawatu Amateur Cycling Club's road race from Ashurst to Palmerston resulted in a win for C. Purser.

A Feilding telegram of the 21st ult. says: —The cycling sports yesterday were a great success. There were 1300 people on the ground. Results: Mile Maiden Race —Erenstrom, 1; Myrick, 2. Two-mile Open—-Barker, 1; R. P. Clarkson, 2. President's Handicap—Mingins, 1; Parr, 2. Five-mile Open—Mingins (375yds), 1 ; A. R. Barker (penalty, 70yds behind scratch), 2; R. P. Clarkson (penalty, 60yds behind scratch), 3. There was great excitement over this race, and the finish was very close. One-mile Open—A. R$ Barker (scratch), 1 ; R. P. Clarkson (scratch), 2. Three-mile Open—A. R. Barker (scratch), 1 ; Mingins (225yds), 2 ; R. P. Clarkson (scratch), 3. The absence of accidents on the cycling track at the Napier Meeting speaks well for the splendid condition in which it must have been. It is rather a small track, but it is undoubtedly the best-kept one in the Colony. The Napier cyclists are to be commended for their part in this matter. I hope the Wellington track will ere long contest Napier's claim to the premier track of New Zealand. Speaking of the Five-mile Bicycle Race at the Napier Championship Meeting, a Hawke's Bay paper says : —"A thrilling race, hard to describe, first one cyclist dashing to the lead and then another —a whirl of excitement from beginning to end." As an illustration of the rapid growth of cycling in Italy, it may be mentioned that during the month of September no fewer than eix new cycling papers were published in that country. In a six days' professional race recently held in Philadelphia, Ashinger, the winner, rode 1300 miles; Forster, 1285 miles; and Gannon, 1087 miles. The Wellington Cycling Club will hold a moonlight run to Island Bay next Thursday. Members and other cyclists will assemble at the Club-room at 7.30 p.m. A half-mile bicycle race not on the official programme at the Napier Championship Meeting, and which was run during the interval between the One and Twenty-five Mile Championships, caused some amusement, and not a little " barrack " from the spectators. The winner turned up in H. Swan, the well-known footballer, W. A. Low, the Dunedin champion short-distance runner, being second, and G. Milne, of the Lyttclton Times, third. Another " extra " was a foot race between several of the press representatives attending the meeting.

A LONG- BICYCLE RIDE. Mr J. 0. Shorland, of the Pioneer Bicycle Club, Christohurch, left Napier at 10 o'clock on Tuesday night with the intention of breaking the cycling- record between that place and Wellington, a distance of 240 miles, and arrived in Wellington at 0.40 on Wednesday night. He was accorded a hearty send off at Napier by the local men, who accompanied him some 20 miles on his journey, while Mr J, CoweH kept with him w far as Dane-

\ virke, a distance of 84 miles, which was reached at 6.30 yesterday mornings I A short stoppage had been made .40 miles from Napier, at Waipawa, 1 which was reached at 1.15. At Danevirke a stay of one hour was made, and Shorland changed machines with Cowell, his own being considerably shaken by the rough going over the Takapau Plains, a distance of about 13 miles. At 7.30 Shorland left Danevirke in company with Mr Stubbs, a local cyclist, and Woodville, 17 miles, was reached in an hour and five minutes. Rain fell all the way between Danevirke and Woodville, and the going was rather rough in consequence. The weather improved after this, and at 9.45 Shorland reached Pahiatua, where he stayed a quarter of an hour for lunch. Two local cyclists than paced him ten miles to Hawera Junction, where they arrived at 10.30, and from that until just this side of the Upper Hutt the record breaker was alone, a distance of 90 miles. At 2.40 he was at Masterton, and reached Featherston at 4.15. He took an hour and a quarter climbing the Rirnutaka incline. Eighteen miles from Wellington he was met by Messrs Chegwidden and Waters, who had ridden out from Wellington for that purpose. As the night was dark the trio jogged along steadily for the remainder of the distance, and reached the Post Office at 9.40 p.m.—23 hours 40min from Napier. Both at the Telephone Exchange and at the Post Office the plucky rider was gx*eeted with cheers from local wheelmen who had met to receive him on his arrival. After a rub down at the Pier Hotel, Mr Shorland declared himself none the worse for what he modestly described as a " trifling canter on a bike." He rode an Oates' Zealandia machine weighing 341 b. Mr Shorland is by no means a veteran rider, as he learnt to ride only about a year ago, but he already holds the Australasian record for 25 miles, and the New Zealand record for 10 miles. Shorland will probably compete in the bicycling events at the Amateur Athletic Meeting on Saturday, and Stedman, of Dunedin, will in all probability be also among the riders on that occasion. Pither, of Christchurch, will not compete.