DUNEDIN HORSE MARKET.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 719, 3 April 1900, Page 2

DUNEDIN HORSE MARKET.

. Messrs Weight, Stephenson and Co. re- c port as follows : — '.-. :f-^ V-X- • * Theresas a fair, entry df -Horses _§r bur" j Bale. last Saturday, but; very few really" good t sorts amongs them. The attendance of .buyers j was somewhat disappointing, owing chiefly , to the farmers being busy with their harvest- r ing operations, and having to take advantage C bfJiheVunßhine after the broken weather of _ the past three weeks. Draught horses were a £ poor --how, both for numbers and quality. Any useful horse of this olass found a ready l purchaser at a satisfactory price, and buyers E could have" been found for a much larger t entry. The ploughing season coming on,- the ( breaking-up of large estates for settlement, , and the large number of waggon horses J npeded to compete with the ever-increasing 3 traffic to the Central Otago dredges, all tend ( to still further raise the price of draught- . horses, and we expect keen competition in '. o,nr saleyards for all useful horses of this, class for the next few months. Light horses^ -1 were a fair show regarding numbers, but the j quality, on the whole, was poor. Good horses of this class sold well, and fetched up to £21 145. We sold several horses privately duriDg the week, including a beautiful pair of upstanding carriage horses, got by the famous imported stallion Merrie Stanton, also a pair of very stylish roan cob 3, got by the late Hon. W. J. M. Larnach's hackney stallion Blue Peter, both pairs at highly satisfactory prices. We can always find buyers for well-matched pairs, provided they are really first-class, stylish horses. We quote : Superior young draught geldings, £40 to £45 ; extra good, prize horses, £46 to £50; medium draught mares and geldings, £30 to £38 ; aged do, £20 to £27 ; upstanding carriage horses, £25 to £30 ; well-matched carriage pairs, £50 to £60 ; strong spring van horses, £22 to £28 ; milk cart and butchers' order cart horses, £15 to £20 ; tram horses, £8 to £12 ; light hacks, £6 to £10 ; extra good do, £15 to £25 ; weedy and aged hacks and harness horses, £2 to £5.