rge
dancing-platform roofed with canvas, which was very well frequented.
Most popular of all, perhaps, were the refreshment-bars, where the
publicans gave the liquor free, but charged the usual prices for the
good of the hospital fund; and the teetotallers, not to be outdone,
managed a very comfortable tea-room. In short, all the usual
expedients for raising money were cleverly resorted to, and the result
was that between 1400_l._ and 1500_l._ was added to the funds of the
hospital, about 500_l._ of which was taken at the ladies' bazaar.
Altogether, there were not less than 5000 people on the ground, though
I believe the newspapers gave a considerably higher number.

The Avoca races were not very different from races in England. Every
town hereabouts has its races, even Majorca. The Carrisbrook
race-course, about four miles from our town, is considered second to
none in the colony. Avoca, however, is a bigger place, and the races
there draw a much larger crowd. We drove the twenty miles thither by
road and bush-track. The ground was perfectly dry, for there had been
no rain for some time; and, as the wind was in our faces, it drove the
clouds of dust behind us. I found the town itself large and
well-built. What particularly struck me was the enormous width of the
main street,--at least three chains wide. The houses on either side of
the road were so remote from each other that they might have belonged
to different townships. I was told that the reason of this great width
of street was, that the Government had reserved this broad space of
ground, the main street of Avoca forming part of the road to Adelaide,
which may at some future time become a great and crowded highway. One
of the finest buildings in the town is a handsome hotel, built of
stone and brick, provided with a ball-room, billiard-rooms, and such
like. It is altogether the finest up-country place of the kind that I
have seen. Here we put up, and join the crowd of loungers under the
verandah. Young swells got up in high summer costume--cutaway coats,
white hats, and blue net veils--just as at Epsom on the Derby Day.
There are also others, heavy-looking colonials, who have come out
evidently to make a day of it, and are already freely imbibing cold
brandy and water. Traps and cars are passing up and down the street,
in quest of passengers for the race-course, about two miles from the
town.

There we find the same sort of entertainments provided for the publi