NEW ZEALAND HORSES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 February 1919, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND HORSES.

DEFENCE PRECAUTIONS. Wellington, Feb. 20. Defence Headquarters considers that adequate precautions have been taken to prevent New Zealand horses failing into undesirable hands alter the departure of the troops from Egypt and Palestine. It has been mentioned that some of the returned mounted men arc sad about their horses, which they fear may spend years fcf bitter privation in the hands of native owners. The colored races of the Mediterranean are notorious}' cruel to animals, which they persistently under-feed and overwork Some of the New Zealanders have shot their horses before leaving for home themselves.

It is explained by the Defence authorities that the horses are to be disposed of through an Army Board and that provision is going to be made to prevent the animals falling into unworthy hands. All the New Zealand and Anshanua. All the Australian and New Zealand horses still fit for army service are ernment for army work in the future. The other horses will be sold under the supervision of officers who are being told that they are not to reach the hands of low class natives. The question of the future fate of the horses has been discussed fully and the army authorities have ruled that the animals are to be protected.

The return of any of the horses to -New Zealand is considered to lie impracticable. Apart from the difficult question of transport, there is the danger of introducing disease into this eountrv The countries in which the New Zealand mounted men have been fighting have more diseases for men and for animals than the farmers of the Dominion have ever dreamed of, and it is considered by the veterinary authorities that even the most elaborate quarantine arrangements would not make it safe to bring the horses back.

One of the suggestions made is that the horses owned by New Zealanders in Egypt and Palestine should be present* ed to France and Belgium. But possibly the questions of transport and disease would be as difficult for the European countries as thev would be for the Dominion.