KENNEL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 38

KENNEL NOTES.

BY TE KURIAROHA.

(All communications should he addressed to the Kennel Editor.) Mr Davidson, the popular member of the N.Z.K.C. and Collie Club, has just returned from: a trip to Australia. Naturally he had a look at ohe Colliethere. He describes the hitches as . poor lot and not up to New Zealand standard, but he speaks very highly of the Melbourne dogs, and thinks we would do well to introduce the strain over here. # # * * * The Westland A. and P. Association have placed a very attractive schedule as regards dogs before the fancy, but I am informed they have not yet. affiliated with the N.Z.K.C. I hope they will do so, otherwise the dog section must suffer. , * » * * Owing to a certain prominence given to a small working collie, through a classification being given to it, under the name of “Kelpie,” “Barb/ or Tuliy,” at a dog show, held in Sydney last year, a certain amount of inquiry has been made in England concerning the ■variety 5 writes * 'AV attlefourk ; 5 an cl it is evident that a misunderstanding has occurred regarding the dog. There is am evident desire to bring this working collie into a position as a distinct breed, although it confessedly is of very doubtful origin. But what is most certain about the variety is that the progenitors were brought from Scotland. A very similar dog, in type and size, X saw landed here from Scotland somewhere about- 1860 or 1867. It came to the order of Mr Henry Box, who was then in the commercial establishment of Messrs Bright- Brothers and Co., of this city. I know that, it was imported for station work, but where it went to, or what afterwards became of it, I am not aware.

If the so-called "Kelpie” dog is a pure breed, we will have tc look further hack than the year 1870 for its history, and to another land than Australia for its birth. The name Kelpie was apparently given to/this variety of working collie because the bitch who was bred to an imported dog was called Kelpie. In the same manner as we may speak of a fox terrier as a Richmond Jack or a Go Bang. The name declares the strain, but does not imply that such animals are of breeds to be known as Go Bangs or Richmond Jacks. The memo random below, sent me as to the “Kelpie,” comes from Mr G. S. Kempe, of Cavan dale, Mintaro, South Australia. If. bears out my statement that the “ “Kelpie” is not- of Australian origin, and that the name is a. local one, but which name has gradually, been extended through the droving duties performed by the dogs' and their masters. And the dog I mentioned as being imported by Mr Box was just a similar dog- 1 to What is here spoken of as a Kelpie. Mr Kempe writes: —“ln recent ‘Kennel Notes’ of your paper, Mr. Rae describes the ‘Kelpie’ sheep dog. The description given is in part correct. In this I give a few additional .particulars, which you are at liberty to make use of. The Kel- ■ pie breed is principally a small, hard-haired, smooth-coated one, colour black or black and tan; I have, however, known many excellent specimens red and also blue. Mr J. Quin’s (Fairfield, Stockintingal, N.S.W.) Coil, winner of the Sydney trials in 1899, an undoubtedly pure Kelpie, is blue-coated, and my Smoker, by this Coil, winner of the last Burra, trials in this state, is a. rough-coated, dark red dog, and my Saxon, a very pure specimen, who won the Hay, N.S.W. trials in 1885 and 1896, was a hard-haired, perfectly smooth clog, with grizzly jaws, and dark brindled tan points.

“The practical breeders of this strain of sheep-workers throughout New South Wales, and they are many, who have had the care of them since 1870, when their originals, Brutus an^. : Jennie, were imported from Scotland by Messrs Allen and Elliott, of near Young, New South Wales, have cared very little for colour, coat, or Collie Kennel Club points;they have simply bredi well within the type, too closely some would say, and just mated the best workers together. They (have thus gained __ the best shape and instincts most desirable to good work; keen eyesight, activity, and low', silent, wide and. Watchful working are the qualities most sought after. As hardy boundary-rider’s dogs, and workers at field trials, such as the yarding trials against time, as practised in this country, they are possibly unsurpassed by any strain of sheep-workers, but they are not particularly good at gathering wild scattered sheep, being too eager and quick;, this gathering quality being more pronounced in other breeds of dogs I have handled, notably the Rutherford strain from the North of Scotland, and made papular throughout the Riverina and South Queensland by Mr R,. Tully, of Brewarrina, New South Wales. „ * * * * *

‘•'The name Kelpie, given to the breed under notice was through a Tasmanian slut named Kelpie, which Mr Gleeson brought to King’s ’Hanging Rock ‘Station, near Wagga, in the early seventies, and -which bred pups to the progeny of Messrs Allen and Elliott’s imported pair.”