Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, 22nd JULY, 1935. THE WHEELBARROW.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 July 1935, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, 22nd JULY, 1935. THE WHEELBARROW.

The State of Victoria has added to the gaiety of nations and the progress of mankind by giving birth to a new class of supermen in wheelbarrow pushers. Like most things acclaimed as novel or modern, the wheelbarrow race is, however, an ancient institution. Walker, in his “Sports and Games, ” published about a century ago, describes the course, and writes: “Along this course, over the bridge, and up to the goal, the candidates must drive their barrows blindfolded if they can.” The practice of blindfolding the drivers must have added a whimsical spice to the sport. It is curious that it remains for a revival of the wheelbarrow race in a modern form to call the attention of the world to the indispensable wheelbarrow. And yet, is not this the way of the world? The humble and common things . of life, which serve mankind faithfully, are unnoticed until they are pushed into meretricious fame. Civilisation is based on transport, and human progress has moved forward on wheels. Yet it must be admitted that the historian, busy with crowns and conquests, chronicling Marathons and Magna Chartas, has overlooked the wheelbarrow, although this modest vehicle has done more for the welfare of the human race than any proud Darius or mere battle-winning Napoleon. In the memorials of wheeldom the wheelbarrow hardly to the dignity of a footnote even. The wheel'itself is prehistoric. In China the wheeled cart is said to have been in use before 3000 B.C. In the “Death Pit” at Ur a Chaldean sledge chariot has been discovered, “with golden heads of lions having manes of lapis lazuli,” and cuneiform tablets reveal that it was made in 3100 B.C. In India, a copper model of a hooded cart shows that about the same time two-wheeled vehicles were in use. The chariots of the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, Hittites,. Greeks and Romans have all left their memorials and been connected with the rich and tlib great. But no tomb or tablet, ancient monument or writing, has lecorded a

single wheelbarrow, whilst in all history there appears to be only one instance of a monarch using one. This was Peter the Great.