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AUSTRALIAS GREATEST RACE. The Melbourne Cup, the biggest annual event of any character in Victoria, is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. It had a small beginning in 1S01, for the Ktake given bv the Victorian Racing Club was ,000; big no doubt in those days, it seems insignificant now. As Melbourne grew, so the Cup grew in value and importance. And when the financial prestige of .Melbourne and Australia generally, in a smaller degree, suffered through the bursting of the land boom, the Cup, as a prize of the turf and as a carnival or holiday field for all Australia, likewise suffered. But in this land of sunshine and full and plenty, despite land booms and droughts, and the occasional visitation of eastern epidemics, the Melbourne Cup, as well as the country at large, has long since recovered its glories. , In the days when Adams big sweeps wer? even bigger than they are now, and when they were not illegal In some of the larger states, public interest reached what Is popularly known as fever heat. Interest in -the Cup "is still deep and wide in our Australian world, for thousands, not regular patrons of the turf, residents of all parts of all the states, are gravitating to Melbourne. And thousands are endeavoring to pick the winner, and thus add a little to their banking accounts. The Melbourne Cup, as a race, once stood apart from all others in this country in the public eye, and as a betting- event; but is is not the only pebble on the Australian beach today, the Australian Jockey Club having come into line with its great carnivals. Nevertheless, Flemington, on Cup day, Is still a sight to make one marvel. There you will note countless numbers drawn from, every part of the commonwealth and New Zealand from the Pacific Islands, and many parts of England, Europe, India, Africa and America. There you will see representatives of royalty from all the states, of the navy, politics, and all the professions. There you will see, too, the man of modest means, from the outposts of the continent, from Port Darwin. Charters Towers, Albany, Kalgoorlie and from Southland and Suva. The drover and the shearer, the men of the back-blocks, of whom our Australian poets unceasingly sing, all build up their cheques for a Melbourne Cup holiday. The Cup is a great sporting event. But to Victoria it is more, far more than that. It attracts men. women and money to the metropolis of the south. There thousands spend thousands and thousands of pounds, which circulates with great advantage, acting as a tonic and stimulus to business. Besides, it makes a great holiday festival, to which people in all parts of Australasia look forward. A holiday is a good thing for any man who works strenuously with either brains or brawn or both. More than that, such a holiday as a visit to Flemington at Cup time is worth looking forward to. The Melbourne Cup is the- Mecca of Australians at this period of the year, and if the pilgrims do not overstep the mark in backing their fancy they return to the scenes of their labors better equipped for battling with life and business. Were the Victorian Racing Club not enriched by the spring meeting, of which the Cup is the center of attraction, the Victorian government would be justified in subsidizing the club which organizes a carnival from which so many benefits to the state generally, and Melbourne in particular, arise. Such a subsidy, of course, is not necessary, for the Victorian Racing Club made a profit on every race meeting iu the 12 months preceding its last annual meeting, and reaped over 00,000 profit from the Cup meeting alone. There is money for you! The turf, of course, is a business rather than a sport, though it Is a business which calls for the exerecise of all the qualities in a man embraced in the term sportsman. Betting is as general as ever in this country, but we do not hear so often of the mammouth wagers .lost and won as in the days of the "King of the Ring" Joe Thompson. Prizes now are bigger than they used to be, and It is not so difficult for owners to pay their way as it was of old, unless a man happened to possess good horses and good luck, a combination not always at the command of the one man. Sydney Referee.
