The Dancing Contest.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume II, Issue 118, 2 March 1894, Page 2

The Dancing Contest.

The contest to morrow night between Donald Dinnie s little daughter and Mr K. Smith s boys should prove one of the most interesting events in Scettish done ing that has been witnessed in the Australian colonies, the little girl having carried all before her in Australis, while the boys are acknowledged to be the most stylish. Scottish dancers that we have yet seen in this colony. No doubt the little champion girl daneor has a bit the best of the contest, m being in continual training for j such a long time, while wo understand the boys never practice, being entirely natural dancers. We regret to hear that the contest between Donald Pinuie and Mr K. Smith, the father of the boys, will j uot take p ace, owing to a S' Vt-re injury to the la t r's leg. However, those who have not seen the wonderful teats of strength performed by the ce ehrated Scottish athletic should not lose the opportunity of seeing probatlv for the last tune the greatest athlete the world has seen. This remarkable man was born in Aberdeen shire, Scotland on the 10th of July, 1837, and is therefore fifty-seven years of age. and although lie has been before the public as champion athlete for 41 years, lie will show to morrow night sex oral of the most wonderful feats of strenght that have been performed by any living man It is not often that any of tlie strong men combine great activity, whereas Dinnie excelled most in out door sport, and it is just possible that we may never sec a man again who combines such wonderful strength and agility, 0 r who will ever ap p roach the wonderful all round record 'hat Donald Dinnie now holds. Having been barred in all the principal athletic arenas in Great Britain, some twenty years ago he sailed to America, and at all the chief gatherings in the land of stars uid stripes carried everything before him. His Inst visit to America was in 1882, and | in that year the Boston Herald, in a re- , port of the games held there in August, I *aid : “ Donald Dinnie is champion of the j world at hammer throwing, stone putting, > wrestling, etc. He is a man of splendid phvsique, and, although all the not d I athletes of America were there, they beI came diminutive when compared with I him.” In the same year at Lucknow, j Canada, he contested a match for £2OO ' with McDonald, the Glengarry giant, I and I). C. Boss at seven feats of strength, j including wrestling. Dinnie won the J whole seven events with comparative I ease. He also in the same year underi took to beat D. C. Ross and Cap ain J. C. | Daly in the same night in a live style wrestling match. The contest came off ! at Plainfield, New Jersey, and Dinnie ! won four out of fix-*; ful s. But to enu merato his victories wou'd fill co'uinns. j Suffice to sax that when comparatively an old man at the Melbourne Caledonian I gathering in 1884. competing against the i best men in Australia, he won eleven first prizes, doing wonderful distances witli heavy weights, putting 211 b stone 39ft 9in ; 221 b hummer, 91ft 2in ; 151 b stone. 49ft 6m; 1616 hammer. 126 ft 6in; and after lie tossed the caber, 2sft had to be cut oil’ tl e heavy end before another man con'd turn it, and being re juested to give an exhibition throw of the I6lb h -miner in the turning style, he threw in one throw 144 ft. The games were held on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. His performances against the best wrestlers in the xvor d since his arrival in Australia are no doubt fresh in the memories of all those who take an interest in athletic sports. A though nature bestoWt-d upon linn uch wond ifu gifts, fate proxed unkind to him. in 1370 he had the great bereavement of losing his first wife and eldest boy, who promised, if he had lived, to follow close in the footsteps of luu father. His next misfortune was a finan ciul one. II tvmg invest <1 about £3OOO in land in Melbourne, like many other unfortunate men, he lost, it all, at a very inconvenient time of this great athlete’s life. He hat had a struggle to honestly earn as much money as will carry him back once more among his native hi Is. where we hope fortune xvill prove mo e I kind to him than in the sunny south. \\ « hope to see all those of his countrymen who can, and every other man or woman I who admires an athlete, turn up to-mor-roxv night to see probably for the last time the greatest wouder physically that the world has even seen. Although we should like to see his litt’e d lUghter carry home to Scot’and the championship for Scottish dancing, vve doubt very much if the youngsters are now breathing that can carry the laurels away from Pahiatua. In addition to the dancing contest, we understand that a clever gymnast is to give n performance.