POPULARITY OF HORSES

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 9

POPULARITY OF HORSES

UNIVERSAL “COMEBACK” STAGED. Facts collected in many parts of the world indicate that, the horse is staging a universal “come-back” as a traction unit. In Australia animals that previously could be bought for £lO are now fetching £3O and £4O, while better-class working horses are being sold for as much as £6O and £7O. The recently published statistics for Canada indicate a total of 3,115,582 horses, the majority being in Saskatchewan with 997,132 horses, while 49,902 farms have between 10 to 15 horses apiece; and in many parts traps are taking the place of motor-cars. The scarcity of petrol in Chile has resulted in a “Back to the Horse ’ movement. The Central Bank of Chile was recently forced to touch its gold reserves to import, petrol. About 250 modern motor refuse trucks belonging to the Santiago Corporation were recently substituted by horse-drawn vehicles, due to the difficulty of getting petrol and the much higher cost of motor transport. In the Argentine over 1000 attended, the annual sale of horses from the stations controlled by Siii Sidney Kidman, buyers coming from all States and even from India. The prices realised were good, averaging £l4 . per head, a considerable increase over previous years.

The continued use of the horse for short distances is likely to prove of considerable advantage to farmers and to agriculture generally, inasmuch as it is estimated that every 300,000 horses displaced by mechanical traction is a loss to farmers of £12,000,000 in agricultural products.