ATHLETIC SPORTS
stakes were provided for athletic events, and during the weeks prior to the meetings, competitors-to-be were to be seen practising on the cricket ground on Charleston Flat.
The various Societies and Lodges gathered in front of The Camp, formed into procession and, gay with regalia, with banners flying, marched to the ground, preceded by the town band and followed by hundreds of holiday-makers. A feature of the gatherings was the side-show at each, conducted by the honorary showman, Robert Shepherd, a man with an infinite supply of showmanship and natural humour; he seldom netted less than thirty or forty pounds for hospital purposes. Though the duped ones were not strangers, he “took them in”; they on their part enjoyed the trickery knowing that the proceeds were for a charitable object. One of his shows was “a horse with his tail where his head ought to be”; a nag with his tail in a manger; another was a “live moa,” which he announced “took twenty men twenty days to catch.” The tent was surmounted by an enormous, whitewashed, wooden egg, stated to be a facsimile of the one to be seen inside the tent, with the bird. If a patron failed to recognise a moa in what he saw, Shepherd explained that the bird, when caught, had become violent, and had spitefully “turned herself inside out and so spoilt her appearance.”
Another popular fixture was, in later years, the annual children’s picnic, arranged each Christmas time by Mr. James Jenkins, a church worker. It was, however, non-sectarian, and looked forward to by youngsters of all creeds, as care was taken to see that each got a share of the toys and refreshments freely provided.
RACE-MEETINGS.
On 3rd September, 1868, a meeting was held in Rooney’s Hotel (the Belle de Union), Charleston, to arrange for a race-meeting, and a Committee appointed consisting of Messrs. Strike (Chairman), Dwan, Rooney, Neale, Brownlie, Twohill, Lichenstein, Kennedy, Fenton, Shepherd, Sturt, Behan, Cutten and Mirfin (Secretary). This Committee arranged the first race-meeting held at Charleston, the “Charleston Midsummer Races,” a two-day meeting on Hall’s Beach, as
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