I cannot close this resume of the Melbourne Race Meetings without a few words in mcmoriam of an old sporting official whose n a m e was for m a n y years synonymous with the Flemington Course, with which he became early associated, and continued until a few years ago, when he retired, and death severed his earthly connection soon after. This gentleman was M r . Isaac Hinds, and " Old Ike" was one of the best known of the Old Identities. H e was thefirstbank-teller in the colony, being appointed to that position in 1837, when Mr. W . F. A. Rucker opened an agency for the Derwent Bank in Melbourne. M r . Hinds was afterwards a wool-broker, and took high rank in our early Colonial Freemasonry. But I speak of him as the weigher of the Flemington Course, a position which he held for a long time, and in which he was regarded as a trusted favourite by all brought into business relations with him. H e was an enthusiastic sportsman in more senses than racing, and his name should not soon fade out of public memory.
A RETROSPECT.
Wide as the poles asunder are the Cup Carnival of to-day, and the Flemington Meet of forty years ago; and there were many features of the Sports of the good old times which one would like to see mingled with the present. There was a touch of romance surrounding the early gatherings which has completely died out, and would n o w be looked for in vain. Everyone then went to see the races, whilst n o w three-fourths of the people go either to try their luck in sweeps, or with bookmakers, show off on the Lawn, or to get baked on the Hill, feeling very little more interest in the running than an anxiety that the horse they backed should win. For about twenty years the winning-post was up by the river, and extending down from it, towards the Hill, between the course and the river, was a row of publicans' booths, where the refreshments, though not of the daintiest, had a full and plentifulness about them which amply satisfied stomachic longings. A railway was then undreamt of, and the two modes of egress and regress from and to Melbourne were the road and the river, both of which were always largely patronised. Steamers used to be laid on from the wharf to the course, leaving about eleven o'clock and returning at sunset. However they managed it, or wherever fished up, there was always a "nigger band" on board; if not the real article, undoubtedly an excellent blackphizzed imitation, and these whitey-black minstrels discoursed a discordance of "music" of the most "stunning" character. T h e steamers were invariably packed with passengers like herrings in a barrel, and, at 2s. 6d. per head each way, reaped a profitable harvest. W h a t was known as a packet license was taken out by the master of each craft, which was supposed to authorize only the vending of grog in transitu, but this was a rule quietly ignored; for the m o m e n t the steamers were warped to g u m trees rearward of the Grand Stand, they engaged in an active nobblerizing competition with the publicans ashore—a proceeding little relished by the landsmen. A s the police and special constables on duty were not indisposed, for sufficient consideration, to connive at small breaches of the law in this way, the regular Boniface was obliged, resignedly, to grin and bear it. If there was amusement going down, it was nothing to the noisy and intoxicated babelment of the up trip, and the wonder was how half the passengers on board did not tumble overboard. Yet only on one occasion was there a death by drowning, and even a good dip rarely occurred in this way, whilst the risks and accidents by the overland route were numerous. T h e road journey out was always worth looking at. Carriages were then rarities, and even a four-in-hand drag seldom to be met with ; but the Flemington Road, from Melbourne to the Saltwater River, was an irregularly-linked chain of vehicles of every grade, from the squatter's or town swell's tandem, rotating downward to the buggy, dog-cart, butcher's or baker's trap, and ending with the drays, where, in a promiscuous fashion, the mother of a family and a numerous brood of youngsters might be observed indulging in the open air enjoyment of a feather or chaff bed. T h e only engine of locomotion then available that I never saw on road duty of a race day, at least with a living passenger freight, was the bullock team. T h e vehicular branch of transit was, however, outdone by the equestrianism of the age, for every quill-driver, counter-jumper, tailor, or tinker w h o could raise a "few bob," chartered some kind of a screw (old or young, good or bad, was no difference, provided only it had four movable legs), at the livery stables or " bazaars," as they were
