EOR A MERE SONG

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 34, 9 August 1927, Page 3

EOR A MERE SONG

HORSES GO CHExUP

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 29th July. Horses arc being sold for a mere song in country districts in New South Wales. Prices for them, in one of the northern towns recently, ranged from two shillings to £2 a head. This would appear to presage the last days of the working horse, but it is pointed out by one who apparently knows something about, the subject that the price of horses has often dropped to an extraordinarily low figure in New South Wales, and quickly risen again above normal average value. Sixty years ago, when horses were so cheap" that thoy could not be given away, large mob's were allowed to go wild, and formed the genesis of the vast herds of brumbiss which over-ran many parts of the country. The story is told in the Press of how two brothers, noted horsemen in their .day, obtained about 25,000 horse hides by trapping and shooting the wild animals. Others also made big and profitable hauls. That the horse has seen the last of his days is vigorously denied by many of the big Sydney carriers and contractors, who cling faithfully to it for good, solid work, even if they prefer the motor-car for the administrative side of their businesses and for pleasure.