NO FOX HUNTING

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 3

NO FOX HUNTING

RICH WOMAN’S BAN. “POOR DEFENCELESS ANIMALS.” Following the action of Mr. Henry Nation, the West Somerset farmer, in forbidding the hunt to pass over hi* land, Mrs Robert Christie, who bought Bxownsea Island,- Poole, last year as a sanctuary for animals, has written to the South and West Wilts Fox! Hunt, banning hunting over her land at Marston, Fromc. Mrs Christie’s property extends to over 2000 acres, and Mrs Christie's reason for banning the hunt is that she considers “no one should torture and cause such suffering to any of God’s creatures, as the fox suffers in being hunted. How anyone,” she continues, “with the least spark of feeling can be a party to such barbarous cruelty I cannot imagine, and to dig him out ■when ho is done and takes refuge in a hole is only an. act of the devil himself.

“When your pack becomes a draghunt I will help you all I can and allow you anywhere over my land, but so long as a poor, defenceless animal is made tq suffer this terriblo suffering I must forbid you to hunt across any land of mine.”

Mr Nation’s decision was given on November 12, and on the following day ii was reported that two other landowners had forbidden packs to l«aht over their lands and that other farmers were likely to follow their lead. When Mrs Christie purchased Brownsea Island for £125,000 she determined to allow no caged birds, no killing of animals and no blood sports. She is the sister of Colonel C. W. Sofcr Whitburn, and inherited much of her wealth from' her father, Mr Sofer Whitburn, who died in 1911, leaving nearly a million and a-half.

Mr Isaac Bell, of Shaftosbury, master of the South and West Wiltshire Fox Hounds, said, in reply to a question: “It is of no importance—as we arc fortunate to have some of the best landowners and best farmers that could possibly be found anywhere. There is plenty of hunting without going over Mrs Christie’s ground. It was never very pleasant hunting there, as her land was full of barbed wire.”