HUNTS BY MOTOR

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1927, Page 10

HUNTS BY MOTOR

ANCIENT TRADITIONS. Re ?nt complaints by England’s M. F.H.’s —Masters of Fox Hounds—have drawn public attention to an entirely new sport. The motorists have taken up hunting—fox hunting and stag hunting. And having once taken it up, they threaten to make it entirely their own. Milke no mistake. Hunting by motor car is not just an issuing forth by ones and twos to pursue and capture an isolated animal. It is a solemn “riding to ’ hounds” in the good old wiiy, but by motor car instead of on horse-back. The cars assemble by, tens and even hundreds at the meet, set off when the M.F.H., the huntsman and the mounted followers do. and follow them for the rest of the day. Only when hounds go under a hedge and horses go over it, the cars go round by road. The element of uncertainty, indeed in following cross-county riders by roads that seldom, if ever, fetch up at quite the same spot, adds an extra zest to the four-wheel hunting. Keen “sportsmen,” at the wheels of their saloons and two-seaters, have not only to “follow” the movements of the fox, but also to anticipate; to determine on probable direction when both fox and red-coated riders are far out erf sight behind a hill or -coppice, to take lightning decision as to the best of several dozen circuitous country routes leading in that direction, and thenfull speed ahead.

Suddenly the Red Coats come into view again, the pack in full cry. Fox has doubled. A grinding of brakes and one car after another in the steady procession comes to a halt, as word, of what is going on is shouted back from those who can see to those half a mile or more behind (half a mile measured entirely in cars, hoods touching back number plates). Silent waiting, enthusiasts stand on the seats in open cars or hang out of windows in closed ones. Ah ! They have their direction. A slow, forward movemetn gives gradual life to the mechanical serpent. Very cautiously it creeps on. No undue haste till it is quite certain that the fox is not coming back this way. Now it is certain ! Fox and hounds are well away. A sudden burst of speed animates the serpent. Window gazers gather themselves together inside the ears again ; standees tumble and sort themselves out. At every crossroad there is difference of opinion among the motor followers. Some go one way, some go another. But as all English country roads (except main ami secondary ones) run in circles, it makes no difference in the end. At the next crossroads they meet again. Up in the “Shires,” as the Midland counties to the north of London are designated, they have dealt firmly with the “nuisance” once and for all. Motor-car hunfing is forbidden. They said that the'number'of cars that followed the hunts was so large (running up into numbers like 300 and 400 motors at a meet) that motor following made hunting literally impossible. And they tempered the ruling wih expressions of regret. South of England and “Home

County” (all counties in the vicinity of London) hunts are in less strong positions. All hunting exists, and can continue to exist, only by virtue of toleration on the part of the farmers, the private residents, the authorities, which mean that it must show toleraion itself to the general public and particularly to local residents. The general public and the local'residents have taken up motor-following with, verve. The Southern and the Home County Hunt can be as disagreeable as it likes, grumble as much as it likes; but unless and until the motor hunter makes things quite impossible for the riders, less occasionally than he does so as yet, it must submit. So everywhere, except in the Shires, hunting by motor is having a field day. Now, whenever there is a meet, the Royal Automobile Club or the Automobile Association —the two motoring clubs of Great Britain, which look after both roads and motor-users —have to provide one of their “scouts” to regulate the car traffic. At the appointed hour cars are parked and parking everywhere ; people are pjpuring out of cars to greet people in other cars; people are comparing and criticising cars —while in the field or the private park alongside, other people are mounting and dismounting from horses, taking delivery of horses from their grooms, discussing the “points” of horses and glaring out at the, motor followers who are quite successfully blocking any through traffic by road. In fox-hunting, of cour.se, hours may be consumed -wandering about from place to place looking for a fox before the hqunds scent anything. It is the cheeks and delays in the start of a fox hunt that tend to make stag hunting the really popular pastime for the motorist. Stag hunting, far from being a cruel or degraded sport, is almost always, as practiced in f England, unrelieved comedy. .Perhaps once or. twice a year a stag gets accidentally killed — usually because the dogs have got too far ahead of the riders, so that when the stag does actually .go to ground the huntsman is not there in time to whip them off and protect the valuable quarry. Ordinarily after the run 'the stag is returned safe and sound to. his home, to await his turn for another day’s run—perhaps a couple of years hence,