THE CHRISTMAS WEEK.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 929, 26 December 1907, Page 5

THE CHRISTMAS WEEK.

“Here we are again,” as the new clown was wont to remark. Once again has Christmas rolled round bringing with it the usual round of festivities and merry making. Out in this new land at Christmas, where the blazing Yule log plays no part in the programme, outdoor amusement is eagerly sought for,, a fact not to be wondered at with the thermometer away up near the eighties. It is at this time of the year that Auckland is at the very best, while the requirements of the holiday-making folk are freely catered for. Every train, leaving town for the -coantry, and every steamer has been crowded with passengers off for the holidays but as fast as they go the country folk pour in to replace them, until now as one strolls up Queen-street it seems to be full of strange faces, our country cousins in town for their annual outing. The exchange is a fair one, for, while the town toilers welcome the pure air and free life of the country or seaside, the incomers are given plenty of ways in which the week may be enjoyably spent. First.and foremost there is the Summer meeting of the Auckland Racing Club. The lover of a good horse, and who is not, will go out to see the race for the Cup, which this year promises to give rise to a fine struggle. Quite a number of Southern horses are up to assist at the fixture, and it promises to be one of the best in the history of the club. The meeting opens on Box-

( ing Day, and will he continued on Saturday, and January 1 and 2. Next in importance comes the Summer meeting of the Auckland Trotting Club, which to lovers of the harness horse is the fixture of the year. Here again there will be Southern horses competing against the Northern champions so some fine exhibitions of trotting should be shown. For those who do not care for the racecourse or trotting track, ample provision has been made. Cricketers will have a chance of judging by the prowess of our team against Otago and Hawke’s Bay whether the great victory over Canterbury was a flash in the pan or not. Then the Tennis Association has a tournament on, and with so many players of even merit many close games should result. The. bowling fraternity, whose name is legion, will be in hard training for the great Northern Tournament which commences the first week in January, and at which it is said that no less than thirty-five Southern clubs will be represented. Lastly, but by no means least, there is Auckland’s national relaxative, as it were, the picnic, and the huge mosquito fleet on the Waitemata will have a busy time indeed during the next few days carrying ship-loads of holiday makers to the many picturesque spots with which Nature has so plentifully endowed the metropolis of the North.

■ ‘ To the racing mn or the trotting enthusiast, to the cricketer, the bowler, the tennis player, the yachtsman, and the sportsman of every kind, we wish the very best of good luck this Christmas time.