EARTHQUAKES OF 1855

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7039, 29 January 1910, Page 1

EARTHQUAKES OF 1855

OLD SETTLER. RECALLS INCIDENTS. WELLINGTON RACES AT BURNHAM WATER. Mr H. R. Armstrong, of Carterton, writes:— In your -paper of tho 24th and 25th inst. there are a few errors which I think I can correct. I always thought the earthquakes -were ion Anniversary Day, January, 22nd, and confess to being surprised when I found it stated iu the "New Zealand Spectator," published in Wellington, that they occurred on the night of Tuesday, January 23rd, 1855. You will also find that Burnham Water races wore advertised for January 23rd and 24-th, and first, day nold on 23rd. My recollectipn of January 23rd is that it rained heavily all day. It was common report then that the sea in Lyall and Evans B&ys met across tho isthmus. I remember hearing that largo quantities of fish wore found on the racecourse. Burnham Water racecourse was at tho south end of tho peninsula, valley, now Miramatr. Part of the back "stretch, north Bide, can 'be seen now. It lay east and west. They raced left hand in. Tho straight was on the south side, and tho top turn, into the straight was through .heavy, sand. Lyall Bay beach was not far from the straight. The position of Burnham Water was much the same as /the. Hutt course is now. The course was not on the flat land—the isthmus—-between Lyall and Evans Bays. 1 'do not know when tilio second day of the races was held, but they were not (abandoned.

It is an error to say that races were not Iheld at Burnbam W r ater after 1855. I am suro that I was at three meetings, if not four.

The late Mr "William Hickson, who was then in tho froirt rank with his racehorses, imported from Australia a ealt called Australian, and .won.the Burnha-m Water Stakes a.nd' Port Nicholson Stakes in 1856, the year following the earthquakes. Air Hickson then had a mare Gipsy from and after her, a mare, Betty Martin from Nelson. Gipsy ■won/all she started for, as Australian, did. lam riot sure about Betty 'Martin ; I, think .she,, .also won, but surely some ul- the old settlera 'can remember,her bolting off the course in the straight and knocking a soldier off his feet. She was a jade. But the point'l want to make is that Australian, ,'G'ipsy, and Betty Martin accounts for three meetings at Burnham Water after tho earthquakes of 1855. ,

I believe the Hast meeting held- there was in January, 1859, as Gipsy and Betty .Martin were both racing at Riccarton in 1859.

Ido not knew -when the races were first held on the Hutt course, probablv about 1860, but I am sure of this, that in the early sixties I saw-Major Trafford|s Sybil, the maternal ancestress of Kquitas, the o-ecenfc winner at Trentham, win on 'the Hutt c-om-se, trained amd ridden by the 7a;te John Walker of Wanganui. * '