SYLVIA PARK STUD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2848, 14 October 1890, Page 3

SYLVIA PARK STUD.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sjb,—The stud farm at Sylvia Park was not only an honour to Auchland, but a credit to New Zealand, and if it is dispersed, it wil! be a loss, and a lasting disgrace to the country. If there is not enough money, and public spirit left to carry it on, poor us the Government is, it should come to the rescue, better do away with many things, and encourage the breeding of firstclass Ntock, we can do without a scab department, better than the best stud animals. In Europe every Government is giving encouragement to the breeding of horses, and New Zealand is second to no country for the purpose, and cannot afford to lag behind. In England there is a Royal Commission which awards substantial prizes for the best stud horses, which must be sound and to which it gives a sound certificate to stand and travel in particular districts at a fair price. This gives an advantage over inferior horses which are driving them to the wall, and already (in four years) it is said the improvement is marked, as the prize is keeping tho best horses in the country, and stimulating breeders to greater efforts, and tho young stock are sounder and better in every way, and first-class stock will always sell, when ■ weeds are a drug in the market, and like other weeds, tho sooner they are rooted out of the country the better. I believe there is great mum for improvement in the breeding of horses, and I cannot feel certain the method in practice is not the worst. Wa breed merinoes for wool ; downs, for quality of mutton, Leicester*, for early maturity ; and Lincoln*, for long lustrous wool; and we have also established breeds of cattle ; only in horses is in vogue, the breeding of non-descripts, and mongrels with a few exceptions, such as the racer, which is essentially different in its requirements from a weight carrying roadster, hunter, or hack, and yet the only method in use to get that class of horses is the racer, with tho result that there are not a dozen horses of tho proper sorts from the Bluff to the B;iy of Islands. Why cannot some " born'' breeder start and breed, and improve those breeds by proper mating and selections. It would be worth the trouble and expense, t'get proper animals like,must as faras possible be matedtolike, Wheninsixoreightgenerations the type suiting oitr requirements would be found, then the horses required cnjld be turned out to order, in place of the wretched mongrels we see all over the country. This has been done in the Clydesdale, the Cleveland, the Shire horse, and in a breed of horses used for carriages in France—no doubt there is a just prejudice in favour of breeding from a pure stock, but why should we not have pedigree hunters, roadsters hackney, and perhaps carriage horses, but the latter might be drafted from the former. The above is a just touch upon it, for the purpose of calling attention to a crying want, for racing has ruined our saddle horses.—l am, etc., T>M '