CONQUERED BY MOTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 172, 23 July 1930, Page 10

CONQUERED BY MOTOR.

DISAPPEARANCE OF HORSE.

ECONOMIC LOSS SEEN

EXPERIENCE -IN AUSTRALIA,

(By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") , WELLINGTON,' this day, Tlie rising of a new problem for the farmer is. seen by Mr. A. L. Sieyiers, a'prominent Australian >vhn is on a holiday, visit to New Zealand. The conquest of the motor, says Mr. Sieviers, has spelt doom to the Australian horse.' In the decade which ended in Juneot-last year-, the horses in Queensland alone .decreased by a total of over 209,000. It is''true that in part of this period a drought of some duration complicated matters, but even so the loss was large. '' In the same period, in South Australia, the number of horses fell by 02,000. Of this number 0ver...18,000 were working, farm draught horses. s In the last .four years of the, ten-year period, the increase of farm traction horse power was known to be 23,900. To many, people .this might appear • a sign of progress; Mr. Sieviers does not think so. tie points' to the fact that this- represents a money loss of £2,400,000, taking the 241,000 horses in these two States at the low figure .of £10 each. This figure, he arrives at after deducting the increased tractor horse power from the amount available previously.

"There arc other aspects, also," says Mr. Sievicrs. "Not all these horses arc hand-fed, but perhaps one-fourth — : 00,000—were. A light, horse requires the food equivalent of 281b of hay each day in order to-thrive, and draught horses nee , c V morc ,- Taking the average weight of hay .needed at 5J tons a year, this means that over the ten years, traction | fuel has displaced 330,000 tons of hay. The fuel,- however, was imported, the I hay was grown within the country. The average price of hay ■ is about £7 ' per |.ton and.represents a-loss, of employment I'and; wages; ' Horses mfcan .-vehicles, 1 which mean coach building, harness, etc! In a recent annual report, Professor Perkins, Director of Agriculture in. South •Australia, 'The attraction of tracj tors for sbhie farmers is very groat. ;l It- is, both from the national a«ftl individual point of ' view

because the tractor is one of the causes of high, production costs, and from tHjfi national point' of view because horses and hay, which can be bred and pro', duced upon the land, are being displaced at considerable cost by imported machines and fuel from a foreign country.' "To the farmer, the horse costs practically nothing to produce, he grows out of the soil, which he replenishes and he is of practical value. He is' counted as ,a national asset, he reduces weeds. But the horse, the pioneer of settlement, is disappearing. It is -not an answer to say that a tractor is capable of doing the work of so many horses. The answer to that is that it-doesn't in practice. But ;the main thing is that the disappearance, of the horse is a menace. It is upsetting the balance of trade arid it is causing grave concern."