THE DECLINING HORSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 189, 12 August 1925, Page 6

THE DECLINING HORSE.

The Australian's attachment to the horse is supposed to be particularlj strong. This love colours his native literature so much that an English critio remarked that Australian poetry consisted in a deification of the horse. It is possible that this affection has been exaggerated by observers—that, for example, the average Sydney or Melbourne race-goer would bet just as freely if the race was between furrow-brnd> and not thoroughbreds. There should, however, be widespread interest among Australians in the lament of a New South Walee mounted officer about the decline in horse breeding. According to Licut.-Colonel McMahon, Australia would have great difficulty to-day in horsing a few light Jiorse brigades. The question arises whether there will ever again be the old military demand for horses. Lord Haig recently told the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons that such tilings as aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the man and the horse, and that as time goes on we shall iiud just as much use for the lior.se in war as we have ever done in the past. The "Manchester Guardian's" comment on this is that it depends on the character of your war. The Great War clearly indicated, it says, that where armies are huge, and the combatants have immense mechanical resources, the horse has declined and will be superseded. In other conditions, where warfare is more open, and mechanics do not dominate it so much, the horse may still be invaluable. Cavalry was not of much use on the Western Front during the greater part of the war, but in Palestine it routed the Turk and swept up the pieces of his army. The '"Manchester Guardian" thinks most people would be despondent if tlicy thought the day of the horse wns not over. "The blind obedient dead," as a New Zealand poet has called them. suffer terribly in war, and they have no feeling of patriotism to solace them in their suffering , . A tank is much less picturesque than a horse, but so is a motor lorry than a team of draught horses; and when one Bees flesh and blood straining to pull a heavy load up a steep hill, perhaps under the whip, sentimental regret at the supersession of the horse by a machine is tempered by the thought of what the horse has been made to do. It is true that something is lost when the horse goes. No oflicer in the tank corps ever addressed his "mount" as the Arab of the once popular song addressed his steed; nor can we imagine Mr. Will Ogilvio getting out a new edition of "Fair Girls and (irey Horses"' under the title of "Fair Girls and Stray Fords." It is common experience, however, for change to involve loss as well as gain. Even if invention abolishes the horse as a utility, man can still use it for his pleasure.