The Duke of Portland has offered Carbine's skeleton to the Melbourne Museum authorities.
The death of Carbine removes one of the greatest horses ever known in the history of the turf. His fame as an equine hero became so great that his name has grown into a household word.
His marvellous merit as a racehorse rivals that of the best, and horses of the century, such as Ormonde, St Simon, can put forward no greater claims than the New Zealand-bred son of Musket and Mersey to be considered the greatest racer that the world has ever known.
Carbine, who cost 625gs as a yearling in Auckland, had an unbeaten career in his native land.
The betting wealth of this sporting world followed him to Australia, when he was booked to contest the Victoria Derby. It is well known how that classic contest terminated.
Carbine subsequently carried the Wallace colours with distinction and success.
At the end of his racing career he was purchased by the Duke of Portland at the greatest figure ever paid for a horse either leaving or coming to Australasia.
The object of importing Carbine from Australia was to blend the Musket and St Simon blood with the best representatives of each tribe. Spearmint, who won the Grand Prix de Paris and the Derby, was one result of the son of Mersey's transference to England.
Those who know claim Spearmint to be one of the best horses ever seen in England, and some substantiation of that is gathered by the fact that Spearmint was one of the few to win two of the greatest events in the racing world. He is now in big demand at a fee of 250gs.
In Australia Carbine grew to be an absolute equine idol.
His merit as a racehorse has been so frequently discussed as not to require recapitulation. Carbine stands as the greatest racehorse ever known in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is sincerely hoped that the best of his descendants, such as Wallace and Trafalgar, will perpetuate his equine prowess in the sporting world.
- For some time past alluvial mining has been steadily on the decline in the Wakatipu district, not altogether on account of scarcity of gold, but rather for want of machinery and capital to develop the deeper levels, and the more inaccessible parts of the district where payable gold is known to exist.
Judging by what has transpired within the past few months, this long sought for power has been found and put into actual practice on the Shotover River by Mr W. H. Paterson, of Oamaru, in the form of an electric elevator.
In the Warden's Court at Arrowtown, during the hearing of a protection application, Mr J. S. Collins, Messrs Paterson's representative stated in his evidence that the electric elevator had proved a great success, and that a plant was under order for the Arrow River. In these circumstances (remarks the Wakatipu Mail) some sensational developments may be expected in the early spring.
Judging by what can now be seen at Mr Paterson`s claim at Deep Creek, where the electric elevator has been successfully tried, the old-time miners' long and expensive water-race cutting has given way to copper wire.
With Mr Paterson's modern method the cost of conveying power from beach to beach can only run into a few pounds per mile, and as the elevator is fitted to a light pontoon the time occupied in shifting it would only be a few hours.
- ODT, 13.6.1914
