KIOSK SELECTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1939, Page 9

KIOSK SELECTED

BY REMOUNT COMMITTEE. A good performer on the track Kiosk has been selected by the Remount Committee to stand the season in the Wairarapa district. Kiosk has both pace and substance as his record on the turf shows. He is some 16 hands and is of a strong and compact build. The service fee is four guineas and paddocking two and sixpence a week. All mares must be approved by the District Remount Committee. The attention of those interested is drawn to an advertisement appearing on this page: The primary object of the premium stallion scheme is the encouragement of the breeding of horses suitable for remounts for the army. During the Great War, New Zealanders on active service, particularly in Palestine, found that the ideal type of remount was the Basuto pony, capable of subsisting on a handful of mealies, and which proved its worth in S'tfuth Africa against the Australian waler and the New Zealand brumby from the inland plains such as the Karioi and Waimarino Plains.

The thorougbred remount was a failure, for it was not the type over which the fully-equipped cavalryman could swing his leg, nor did it have the endurance to stand the trying conditions of days’ marching in the desert. In the process, it was hoped, with the aid of the thoroughbred sire, to provide country dwellers with a type of horse, probably half-bred, that would be suitable for picnic race meetings, horse gymkhanas, and such other outdoor activities that engage the attention of the rural population.

It was believed that by making the services of a thoroughbred stallion cheaply available, those people who could not afford to patronise stallions at the bigger public studs would be able to breed stock of their own and thus interest in the handling and riding of the horse would be revived. There is, however, another side to the story. Several instances have come under notice where the owners of Stud Book mares are proposing to mate them to premium sires. In two such cases, it is with the object of starting maiden mares breeding, and the owners concerned are quite frank that,. because of first-foal prejudice, they do not feel disposed to spend 40 or 50 guineas on a proven sire. The sponsors of the premium stallion scheme never intended that' it should usurp the functions of the thoroughbred breeding stud, and the only way to prevent its doing so is to limit the value of any mare served by a sub • sidised sire; and/or restrict the produce of mares mated to subsidised stallions to hunters’ events and races for amateur riders. Because of its natural advantages, New Zealand has built up a worldwide reputation for the quality of its thoroughbreds, and everything possible should be done to jealously guard that reputation. The success of our stock has seen the development of an overseas trade, and annually there is a pil - grimage of buyers from Australia to compete for the choicest lots in our offering of yearlings at Trentham. Also, owners and breeders in far-distant countries are represented by commissioners, and usually from one-third to one-half of the aggregate sum realised at auction is “foreign capital.” FuTther, some consideration must be shown to those men who, by their own enterprise and with their own hardearned capital, have imported stallions and mares from England at high cost so that the standard of .our stock can be maintained at a high level. The premium scheme was founded to breed utility horses, whose usefulness would be extended by an infusion of thoroughbred blood; it was never hoped to breed racehorses, and additions to the regulations appear necessary to prevent such a course from being followed-