TATTERSALL'S HOUSE REPOSITORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2410, 10 May 1900, Page 6

TATTERSALL'S HOUSE REPOSITORY.

A FEW NOTES ON A HISTORICAL INSTITUTION. Everyone must have noticed that during the present generation the principle of sales by • auction has made 3r0.1t advances, both in town and country, and nearly all market lo\vn& now have well-established marls for the sale of general live stock of the farm, whilst the more important centre, can boast their repository, the central feature of which are the horses.

Tlns general multiplication of auctions is proof of the soundness of that system of purchase and fale, and when one considers that an idle horse .soon "eats his head off" (as the dealers say), there can be no wonder that the expeditious method of the hammer has largely superseded the slow, unsatisfactory, antiquated and .sometimes unpleasant method of Belling private horse properties, by private exchanges. Side by side with the establishment of country repositories, there has been not only a munerical extension of the auction principle in the metropolitan district' ; but the old establishments have also grown and improved and consolidated their positions in the horse;* world, " t

In .liondon, the .central horse mart is Tattersail's', and all over the civilised world the name pnd fame of Tattersall's is well known to all lovers of horses. During 50 Mondays in every year there is a'sale'of hunters, harness horses, polo ponies, hacks or blood stock; and ac various seasons fabulous prices are realised. For instance, during the months of May and June, large and valuable studs of hunters come up from ths fashionable hunting counties for dispersion at "The Corner,"' and prices up to bOOgs have then been realised. Again, in the spring time, jtiot before the commencement oi polo, various batches of blood-like ponies are sent up to meet a growing demand, and prices even beyond the figures for hunters are often obtained for well-known ponies cf great speed and high repute as clever and 'tractable players. This important polo business has sprung up during- the last 20 years, but the trade in pairs of steppers and other carries' c horses id as ancient as the institution itself ; as also is the trade in the stylish ride and drive horse, which animal is often so much in demand. The yard accommodates 144 horses, 22 ot which stand in commodious boxers ; and entire horses, brood mares, and blood stock generally make an advantageous show in the boxes, which, together with the occupants of the \Lc stalls, are inspected on Saturdays and on Mondays before 11.30 by gentlemen and dealers who are desirous of making purchases. • When noted racehorses are catalogued tncre is" always a largo attendance, and sensational prices are sometimes realised. Even so recently a* January <i 9. x^U, a steeplechase horse named The Sapper, . seven years' (by Hackler out of Sunnysiue), was aosolutely sold for 750gs, and on the same day other steeplechaser? made 350gs and respectively. .. m * There i a never any lack o[ buyers at lattersali's for anything superior, as, m addition to well-to-do British dealer?, there ore in attendance and on the watch gentlemen irom Paris and other parrs of the Continent who arc in want of a "better class of saddle horse than can be readily procured cl-ewnere. Space does not herein permit of any reicrei.ee -to recent improvements in the stabling, c.c. nor to any explanation of the warranties and o'na-antees which are given by Messrs lattexeall and adopted by other auctions.— farmer and Stockbreeder.