POVERTY BAY HOUNDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16908, 23 March 1929, Page 7

POVERTY BAY HOUNDS

(By “Snaliles.”)

Universal regret is id. amongst members of the l'overty Bay Hunt at the resignation from the mastersliip ol Mr. A. B. Mine. Mr. Iline has held the reins of office for some 15 years, and ttio loss of his leadership will he see...y felt. Coming from that mns. sporting of all English counties—Somerset - various parts of which are hunted respectively by the Taunton Vale, Blackinme Vale', Cattistock. Duke ol heaulort's ami S. and W. Wills’ Foxhounds, the Devon and Somerset Siaghoumls, and packs ot harriers innumerable, it is mu surprising! that the ex-master was so sirongiy. imbued with the spirit ot hunting, and we all realise with a deep sense ol gratitude that bur for 1 1 is stoat chain pioning of the cause, and the tenacity with which he stuck to tlu; game through the dark years of the World War and those of agricultural depression which followed, we would now have no hounds in Poverty Bay, and the hill country would no longer echo hack the cheerful sound of the horn on the early autumn mornings. Mr. Mine has a worthy successor in Mr. T. Sherratt who has now taken over the mastership, and who combines a real interest in hounds and hunting with tho ability to he always “with ’em” no matter what sort of country they cross, and be has the backing ot an enthusiastic bunt committee.

The pack will be litis season sup plemented by a particularly nice young entrv and will bo shortly ready to take tho field. Mr: C. Parkinson enters upon his sixth season as huntsman, whilst Dick Sampson from the Waikato hounds, will turn hounds to him; so given suitable weather conditions for an early commencement wo may all look forward to an exceptionally good season’s sport—and what better sport does the world provide? Surely it is very ‘''oa that: There is never a bird on 1 heather,

There is never a stag in the pass, That can hold a man’s heart in a tether Like a horse, 'and a handful of heather, When twenty-two couple together, Are chimbing away on the grass,

as the immortal sporting poet, Will Ogilvie, so thrillingly puts it. Most of the enthusiasts are “packing the hard feed” into rheir horses now in preparation, and I think we shall have a large following—at any rate on Saturdays—of juveniles, which, to my mind, is the most encouraging sign of all, snowing as it assuredly does, that the sporting spirit and the love of that, cleanest of all sport —hunting—far from dying out. -is tremendously on the increase as the generations come on in their due turn.

* It is indeed a case of “The toll of the yens is ‘Readily mounting, the old give way to the eager young.” and it is the “eager young” that ail true spoilsmen love to see coming to the fore — let them turn out in their dozens and scores and learn the science of hunting while they learn at tho learning age.