The weather was again at its worst on Saturday and people wore therefore not surprised toreceivean Express annonueing at the Annual Parade and Competition of.the Fire Brigade was postponed until after the races. The foremen of the competing companies waited on the El engineer and asked that the Competition, Any rate, should not be postponed, as the teams were tired of training and were not willing to train for another fortnight. The Chief Engineer "greed "tallow the Competition to proceed, ppt another Express was not issued to countermand the first, so that many people 10 would doubtless have attended, stayed away. Noyortheless there was a fair The last event, was the reeling up of four lengths, the supposed broken length having to be rolled up and placed on the footboard in front of the truck. Timo was taken until " Right" was said by the Foreman, when the truck had to be in perfect readiness to be harnessed.
The Deluges having won the. shield for the past five yenrs were the favourites, but the competition was expected to be a very close one, and ix this respect the spectators were not disappointed. The Hongkews, who had only bad one practice, and whose team was with one exception composed of entirely new men very pluckily entered. The. Frouch Company did aot complete.
Event, No, L—The Deluge who want firat made the good time of 243 secs,; but wore beaten by the Victorias who had both their streams pi laying in 22% secs, The Hongkew came next with 433, The Mil of last year's competition. The start was from the West Gate of the Cricket {Club with four men on the truck, which had driven towards a hydrant placed near the junction of the roads near Swimming Bath. The fifth man stood at the starting point opposite the Foreman and joined in onthe word "Go." At a point about 20 yards fromthe hydrant the word " Go" was igiyen by the Foreman of the competing tourn, when the axle of the wheel passed the "fixed point," before which time no of the reel could be loosened or taken off, and nothing taken from the box, Time was taken from the word Foreman till water came out in each event except the 6th, The reel could be made tidy or moved about as required between each event, and one extra man was allowed to hold the shafts in the last event. Helmets, service tunics, long boots and belts with accoutrements had to be worn by all competitors, and ten ordinary lengths of carried on each truck. The ere Messrs. K. W. Campbell, apples, R. I. Fearon, and R J. Broad, and Messrs. A. E. Jones and Robt." Macgregor wore official timekeepers.
The teams wore as follows Min-no-Looxc Ca. Hoxaxew Ca. *W. A. Kirschstein H. N. Weinberg *W. F. Susemihl © R. Bablmann A. Turner G. Fawcett 8. W. Rober W. Thacher GB. Boyers.—*W. F, Hamlin.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.