GREYHOUND STUD BOOK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 8034, 6 December 1886, Page 2

GREYHOUND STUD BOOK.

( Australasian ,) The keeper of the English. “Greyhound* Stud Book " has favoured us with vol. 5 of' that interesting and useful work. As usual, the book is bulky, full of valuable information to coursers in general, and the marvel is how the compiler manages tomake it pay at the price. The principal part of the contents is taken up with the registration of greyhounds, without which they are not allowed to run during the season, which opened in September. The total number of entries is 4807, 306 of which are re-registrations on change of ownership. There are 2009 individual owners, and 69 confederacies, the latter embracing 141 names. Before referring to the general contents of the “Stud Book" it may not be amiss here to urge on the National Coursing Club of Australia the institution of a similar publication. The mere resolve of a fortnight ago to enforce registration of greyhounds in the Colonies was undoubtedly a step in the right direction; but it is to be hoped that our National Club will eventually go further, and follow the lead of the Old Country. The yearly issue of an authorised " Stud Book ” could not but tend to place coursing on a sounder basis than it has ever before occupied, mainly by reducing to a minimum the chances of fraud in pedigrees and the ages of greyhounds. Were such a book in existence the Secretary of every Club would only need to refer to its pages on an entry being presented to him by a nominator, and a greyhound unregistered would at once be detected and stopped. Principal amongst the general contents of the volume before us is an admirably written sketch, entitled “My Coursing Experiences,” by a New Zealand colonist. The contributor discourses pleasantly on the sport as it was in his young days, at Newmarket, interpolating particulars and descriptions of the various greyhounds that were celebrities forty years ago, with their characteristics as transmitted to their descendants of the present day. A considerable portion of the article is also devoted to the rise and progress of coursing in New Zealand. Next year’s “ Stud Book,” it may be added, will contain a similar contribution on the history of the sport in the Australian Colonies. The remainder of Vol. 5 is made up of the proceedings and decisions of the National Coursing Club, extended pedigrees of last season’s winners, a sketch of the season, a return of the winners, dividers, and runners-up for all stakes of sixteen greyhounds and upwards, together with other items of interest. The work is,, as heretofore, compiled by the official keeper of the “ Greyhound Stud Book,” Mr David Brown, formerly of Bell’s Li f e, and now of the Field, and a courser of over thirty years’ standing, whose erudition, energy, and industry in all matters connected with the leash have long been proverbial.