REMOUNTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 121, 18 June 1901, Page 4

REMOUNTS.

the colonial market. Colonel Hunt and Captain Nuthall, Imperial Remount Commissioners, who visited Napier recently, are two of four Commissioners originally appointed by the Home Government to tour the colonies for the purpose of purchasing army remounts. Two of the Commissioners have returned to England from Aus'ralia, after completing their mission there. In conversation with a Hawke's Bay Herald reporter recently at the Masonic Hotel, Captain Nuthall sa : d that up to date 12,693 horses had been secured by the Commissioners in the colonies, the majority of which had a'rsady been sent to South Africa. They found that the colonies" had bean well draired for horses owing to tin despatch of the various contingeats, though there still remained a good market for remounts in Australia and New Zealand. If the lessons of the Sou'.h African war were taken to h«art, the mounted infantry class of horees wou'd be in great request, and if the Continental Powers aleo went in for mounted infantry, then the demand for hoises would be very great, ai.d Captain Nuthall, who knows the remount market well, wondered where all the horses were ceming from. The death rate amongst the horses in use for military purposes in South Africa was 5000 pßr month since the war had started. In regard to the horaes secured in New Zealand the Commissioners were very well satisfied, but admitted that scarcely sufficient time had been given to the Stock Department to thoroughly canvass the provinces noted for their good class of horses. Another drawback was the great distance the Commissioners had had to travel in this eountry in order to pick np two or three horses that might be available. Asked as to tow the hoi ses here compared with those in Australia for army purposes, Captain Nuthall said double the prices had been paid by the Commissioners in New Zealand. In Australia they had gone in very extensively for blood stock, and their horns were better adapted for cavalry. Our cobs were particularly good, and well suited for infantry, while our medium draughts were very suitable for Field Artillery and the Army Service Corps. 'What impressed Captain Nuthall in New Zealand was the splendidly watered condition of the country, and the plentifully stocked paddocks, compared to the miles of consumptive gum trees and country practically barren of atock in Australia. New Zealand, generally speaking, was, he admitted, an eye-opsner to him, and he would take away with him the very plea■antest recollections of the people of this colony and its resources. In view of the very satisfactory "•pinions expressed by our visitors, it is to be hoped that Hawke's Bay breeders will rouse themselves to the pessibili--ties of the remount market. Geod prices can always be secured for the right class of horses, and with the splendid facilities in the way of climate conditions tbat we possess our export trade in horses should be largely increased. Our horses, the Commissioners declared, were as good, if not better, than any they had purchased throughout the colonies, and this verdict ought to spur us on to still further efibrt in this direction.