COUNTRY SPORTS ON BOXING DAY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 1, 4 January 1908, Page 27

COUNTRY SPORTS ON BOXING DAY.

FROM time immemorial in the history of the Dominion, Boxing Day has been devoted to the country sports meeting. In many small townships this is the one day in the year, the day from which all local events are reckoned, the Hegira of the local residents. There is nothing quite like it in England; the village sports at Home are mostly quite small affairs, managed and arranged by the squire and the parson, and of no great interest even to the villagers themselves. But in our own country districts they are entirely managed by the settlers, and the interest in them is keen. I was once spending Christmas with gome friends in the country, and I found them full of the great event. For weeks past little else had been discussed, and everybody was hoping for a fine day. We had had a very wet week, Christmas Day had been ushered in with a deluge of ’ rain, and great fears were entertained lest the sports should be spoilt by the wet. But the clerk of the weather was propitious, and the day shone fine and fair. The boys spent the best part of the morning grooming their .horses and brushing up their best suits? The girls devoted their time to various mysteries connected with feminine gear; their hair had been carefully plaited the night before so that it might curl and wave with natural grace on the day itself. They had washed ; and ironed their best white frocks; long gloves were produced and carefully -fastened at the top to the end of the short white sleeves, and the hats were, patted and pulled and pushed till they assumed that look' of negligent grace so dear to the feminine heart. Then they were fixed in their place by a bewildering array of fancy hat pins, which stuck out each side in a formidable manner. Dad went out to sec to the buggy, because the girls were to drive so as to save their frocks. The buggy was a good substantial structure with four wheels, and drawn by two stout horses. It needed to be strong because the roads were in an awful state after the rain. Then commenced the long drive through the mud. It was wonderful to see how the horses pulled us, through the thick clay and ruts that would have terrified any English farmer. We had to hang on for all we were worth, as it swayed from side to side galloping down the hills. At last we reached the township, which was gaily decorated in honour of the great festival. The hotel paddocks were full of horses and buggies, and the verandah was piled high with saddles and bridles. Everybody from miles around had come in to see the running. There were grey-headed old settlers, still sturdy and well set up, middle-aged, sun-browned farmers, long, lanky youths in straw hats, mothers and maidens and babies in arms. The great prize of the day was the cup, valued at £2 10/-, and this was run in several heats. Great excitement was manifested in the final for this event, as it was rumoured that a crack runner had come up from town in order to carry off tjie trophy. Of course everybody barracked for the local champion, and the handicappers did their best to assist him by giving him a long start, and putting the town man scratch. The race was, however, closely contested, and the town runner finished only a yard behind his rival. The ladies’ race produced a big field. It was only a hundred yards, but very few of the competitors finished, as they all got mixed up when half way down course, and stopped to argue the matter out. A fleet-footed damsel of •eventeen, who had managed to keep out Of the ruck, came in an easy winner, •pd the event seemed a popular one with the boys. She had apparently l>een well Backed in half-crowns with the local pen-

ciller, and her fortunate backers came up after the race and presented her with half their winnings. Tilting at the ring on horseback brought out all the local horsemen. As the course was a furlong with five rings, and everybody had three tries, this event took up all the rest of the afternoon. The winner managed to get four out of the five. At night there was to be a dance in the hall, but we had to get back before dark as the roads were too bad for night travelling. On the way home we passed an endless stream of buggies and horses and people on foot returning to the distant settlements, one group consisted of five little boys who had walked ten miles to see the sports, and were now pluckily setting out to walk the ten miles back again to their home. It is no wonder that as a race we are hardy, or that in sport, handful of men as we are, we more than hold our own against more populous rivals. Look at the men who go to these meetings—not the city weeds stunted and pasty-faced, but strong sturdy sons of the soil, brave and fearless riders, of an iron endurance, able to run all day and dance all night, and after a twenty-mile ride over clay roads and bush bridle tracks turning out at sunrise next morning for their day’s work in the field as fresh as ever. It was men like these who proved so invincible in South Africa. And the country girl is quite as admirable in her own way as her brother. She will ride her ten or fifteen miles after working all day, and turn up as fi;esh as a daisy for the dance at night. Youth is her time of joy. ’ The- day will eome when the shy young settler from the .backblocks will ride over to her place on Sundays and talk about his bush clearing and the grass he has sown, and the house he is going to build next year. And she will admire his horse, and make cakes for his tea, and when the house is half-built she will become engaged. And then they get married, and have a great tin-canning from the boys, and many small gifts are sent by old friends, and she goes still further back into the wilds and devotes herself to her new home and her husband and bairns. A true daughter, a true wife, a true mother, she helps to make and keep our country great. There will be hard times ahead, days of -isolation and hardship and loneliness, but days sweetened by love and by thoughts of duty done. And if she goes ' again to the sports it will be in sober garb, with children clinging round her, but there will always be the memory of days when she was fancy free, when she drove out so daintily fresh in her coquettish ribbons and muslin, with, Dad, in the family buggy, and when the boys crowded round her to beg the favour of a danee at night—the best and the saddest of all memories, the memory of what has been and never more can be.