The Globe. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1876.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 688, 2 September 1876, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1876.

Another wail from Timaru! r i hat celebrated organ of the “ Bill of “ Eights,” the Timaru Herald , has been prowling about lately, in search of somebody to abuse and to lash. Subjects for dissection are not so plentiful now as they were. The Herald exhausts the list as fast as it fills. At last, our contemporary has fixed its claws upon the Provincial Public Works Department, The grievance this time i» of a somewhat peculiar

nature. There exists in Canterbury at the present moment, an institution yet in its swaddling clothes. It is a formidable one, however, and goes by the name of the Hunt Club. Opinions are very much divided regarding the usefulness or otherwise of this co-called club. There are men of common sense, fond of plain speaking, who think the whole thing a ridiculous burlesque upon an anciently established feudal sport, which, even in the old country, is getting less and less popular every day under the rule of modern ideas. This club owns a few mongrel dogs, magnified into the name of fox hounds ; its members, with perhaps half a dozen exceptions, never saw a real hunt in all their lives, and care in fact very little about the whole thing if the truth were known; but then, they think it “ the correct “ thing,” to air sporting ideas that they never possessed, and they give themselves “ side” accordingly. Some of those happy individuals, when attired, regardless of expense or tradition, on a “ foine hunting morning,” bring forciblyto mind those caricatures of Leech’s intituled Le Sport. Newspapers are furnished —and they publish them—with wonderful accounts of the doings and sayings of the club ; how, after a run of so and so, “ over the “ hills and far away,” the “ herring” was captured and killed in the most approved style and to the delight and self-satisfaction of all concerned Well, it seems that the Secretary for Public Works was applied to by the members of the Hunt committee, for a reduction of one-half of the usual fare for dogs, horses, and men between Christchurch and Timaru. This, the Government very properly refused, on the ground, we suppose, that if certain people will indulge in the luxurious enjoyment of those noble sports, a taste for which they acquired in their ancestor’s marble halls, they simply must pay for it. Of course the Herald does not see it in that light. The opportunity is a golden one to let people know that the writer of those “ Heraldic Notes ” has aristocratic tastes, and he seizes it accordingly. He tells us that Mr Peacock “is evidently net a sporting “ man, and has no desire to encourage “ the Hunt Club in extending its “ sphere of operations.” Many farmers no doubt will pray fervently, that the aforesaid sphere be confined instead of extended, and we agree with, those who think this tomfoolery is not adaptable to this colony. Neither the habits of the people, nor the legal tenure of property is such as to render it a desirable introduction, It is a noble sport certainly, that is, from an English point of view and when indulged in in proper times and places, but we decline to apply the adjective to what here is designated sport. The Herald is very amusing when pleading angrily for monetary privileges for this Hunt Club. It affirms that “ it is not a moneymaking “ institution, in which case there might “ be someexcuseforthese heavy charges “ but one having for its object solely “ the encouragement and providing of “ one of the noblest sports in the “ world.” As a natural sequence, it brands the action of the Government in declining to assist the Club out of public funds, as “ a piece of arbitrary “ and unnecessary red-tapeisra.” The Acclimatisation Society, which is weakminded enough to want payment for some hares they have supplied to the sporting institution in question, will no doubt come in for a share of abuse for daring to protect the public interests of which they are custodians. It is said that the courts of law are about to be moved against the members of the Club for the recovery of some £l3 due by them to the Society. Of course this will be considered also as a “ piece of arbitrary “ and unnecessary red-tapeism.” Surely, those gentlemen who can afford to waste time, money, horseflesh, pink accoutrements and tight unmentionables, upon reviving the “ dear old sport ” which many of them never even witnessed, should recollect that noblesse oblige, and act accordingly. It is not well that persons of their position should be under obligations, for favours of a financial character especially, to any one, let him be a short-sighted Government official or a narrow-minded inane Acclimatiser. We may say that a considerable number of people have heard with satisfaction that the hunting proceedings are over for the year, that the “ foxhounds” are to be housed in, and the pink accoutrements put carefully by for further show.