CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 4, 26 October 1872, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

ABOUT HORBEB.

to the editor of the standard. Sir, —It is now nearly twenty (20) years ago since the first importation of horses tothe East Coast. 1 had something to do with the first mob that came up to Ahuriri, and therefore I may be fairly allowed to know something about the origin of species.” Those useful animals at that early day were few aud dear, and wero as great curiosities tothe New Zealander in their way aud after their kind, as a Lama or Camel may be to the Londoner now for all I know to the contrary. Much trouble was taken in the first few years of the horses existence in this island, to keep up the quality, and, if possible, to improve the breed. Entires of noted pedigree were imported at great expense, and mares of equally unblemished desent were brought from Australia and elsewhere to mate with those noble animals. In short, such was the delight taken in horses and horse breeding, that for a man to ride anything but a first rate animal in those palmy days, was a thing not to bethought of. Well do I remember in my young days what glorious nags we used to "ride, the long journeys we used to take, the feats of running, four mile heats and welter weights, and the rasping hurdles we used to fly. How hath the mighty fallen ! There is not to be found a four mile welter horse now a-days, and a steeple chaser is not to be had for'any price. Alas the day! For every really good, serviceable, weight-carrying horse, that you might find in the days I treat of y>n can see now a him ’r d weeds and miserable representatives. But what after all surprises me most in this matter of horses, is the enormous increuse in their number, and decrease in their quality. They have become a prodigious nuisance, instead of useful servants, they are a plague, a pestilence, and some day if their numbers are not thinned they will produce a famine in the land, instead of being the pride of mens hearts and tho delight of their eyes, they hiive become sore-backed stumbling blocks in the ways of all men. Can you distinguish in the sorry brute of our day any likeness to that magnificent animal who “Paweth the valley and rejoice!h in his strength tnd goeth on to meet the armed men. He saith amongst the trumpets Ha! Ha! aud smelleth the battle from afar, the thunder of the Captain’s and the shouting.” On a volunteer parade day this picture altogether fails to strike the eye ; there does’nt appear life enough in tho whole troop to be astonished at anything, certainly not at the “thunder of the Captains.” Anyhow the horse of the present day, notwithstanding his short comings, must live somehow, as did the horse so gloriously described 2,000 years ago; he paws the valley yet, and must feed. But unfortunately he has so fallen away in all those real points and qualities which have rendered him a leader amongst the animals, and a companion for man, that he is now hardly worth his grass. But still they increase and multiply and still they come, they wander about the face of this part of the earth ceaselessly, they regard not our land marks neither do they take heed of our fences ; they smell green grass from afar, and fall upon it and devour it and care not to whom it belongs. To whom then do these legions of lean kine belong ? Have they any responsible or recognisable human owners? Does any man or number of men claim t hem or take any sort of interest in them ? If so it will be so for the much enduring pastoral interest when that party or those parties turn up. Steps for the prevention of horses must shortly be taken, we cannot stand their depredations much longer. lam a great lover of horses as horses simply, but I thoroughly hate the Poverty Bay horse, not particularly as a horse, but as an unwarrantable eater of my grass, and violator of my pastoral peace generally. Shade of Jim Masen look at that mob of miserable four-footed sinners even now coming into my paddock, and vote with, me for a speedy erection of a Pound in this vicinity. The Ghost of Riddlesworth at such a picture of equine depravity and degradation, will neigh in his grave and make a desperate effort to leave the shades just once more to improve, the breed. But unfortunately for long suffering man the laws of probabilities are against the spirit of a dead horse, revisiting the earth even for so laudable a purpose as that. Let us then my dearly beloved brethren set to work and improve ’em ourselves, off the face of the earth or into the Pound. Improvement of some sort must be effected without delay.—l am, Ac., TALLY HO! THE GRINDER.