24 November

1 December

15 December

15 December  ~ I wonder if this was a winning card?

Until someone tells me the real story, I shall rely on dim, distant memories of village fêtes and fairs where a stallholder would have a full card of races based upon a mechanical table with up to about a dozen model face horses, complete with jockeys aboard, each operated by a person.  The game was, of course, to have the punters gathered around gamble on the races.  Is this kind of event represented by the weekly 'Rangitiki' race cards above?

20 February 2006 ~ I now understand that the game was more of a deck game where the "horses" were actually represented by people moving around a "course" marked out in squares at the throw of dice.  Not quite rivetting by today's standards, but quite fun in the middle of the Pacific.