STAG HUNTING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 565, 23 June 1933, Page 4

STAG HUNTING

POPULAR SPORT ENGLISH LADY VISITOR GIVIE'S INTERESTING INTERVIEW . ' ! MASTER OF NORWICH CLUB ? An interesting visitor to Rotorua 1 at the present time is Miss Sybil Har- ! ker, who is well known in English 1 hunting circles and is master of the I Norwich stag Hounds. Yesterday Miss J Harker rode over the hunting country I in the Rotorua district accompanied 1 by an official of the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty Club and to-morrow will he 1 the guest of honour at the meet to • he held at Ngongotaha. She rides side ! saddle and astride hut prefers the I tformer style when hunting. - In an, interview Miss Harker said I that stag hunting differs from hoth | f ox and hara hunting, thq stags as I wel'l as the hounds being kept at the I kennels. On a hunting rnoming a stag | is liherated and given 20 minutes 1 start from the hounds. It is never 1 killed 'but is hunted until sufficiently 1 exhausted for the officers of the club I to seeure it either by lassoo or by l ■other means. 1 A stag will of ten come to bay in a | pond .or other water and the hunts- 1 men frhquently have the unenviahle 1 experience .of wading waist deep tQ 1 secure Mrn. The stag is then carted 1 back to the kenriels by motor truck | and al'lowed to rest. The Norwich Club , j The Norwich Club, of which Miss | Harker is master, lceeps 20 stags 1 which after having been hunted sev- J eral times hecome acquainted with the | country and enjoy the chase almost as | much as members of the club. The ! hounds, of which there are 22 couples, i are larger than fox hounds and stand | ahont 26 inches in h eight. Miss Harker herself owns a string \ of nine hunters, five of which she | keeps at her home and the other four j at the kennels 20 miles distant. She | hunts four days a week; two days with | her own pack and two days with the J

Dunstan ' fox hounds. Her hunting | country is for the most part heayy 1 with innumerable wide drains to neg'o- | tiate. .Some of these have hedges oh- | scuring them and frequently a horse | has to stretch itself to safely negoti- i ato( the jump'. A High Subscription Referring to the cost of membership \ Miss Harker said that in her own j club the subscription was £20 but that \ this amount was often exceeded hy | other cluhs. The reason for _ such" a j high subscription was to limit the : number of followers to within reason. j Three hundred followers on marshyl or uncultivated land could do a great ] deal of damage.