AN ANTI-HUNT CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144070, 15 April 1913, Page 6

AN ANTI-HUNT CAMPAIGN.

English fox-hunting >ips found an active enemy in a Croydon fruit-grower named Hurst. Mr. Hurst’s fruit plantations are situated at Heathfleld, in the country of the Eastbourne Hunt, and for some years ho has been annoyed by the'hunt'trespassing on his enclosures and doing damage to his fruittrees. He has now taken action, in the matter, and had bills posted about the district offering rewards of 5s 6d a head for any foxes up to the number of ono hundred, shot in the country hunted by the Eastbourne fox-honnds. These foxes have to come from that country alone, bo shot, and not caught in traps, and their deaths have to occur during the hunting season. These bills are accompanied by an “open letter to the members of tho Eastbourne Hunt,” in which Mr. Hurst explains the reason for his action. In detail, his grievance is this: Up to the present time he-has given the hunt access to his land, merely requesting thorn to refrain from entering three enclosures of highly cultivated fruit laud. Despite his protests, these enclosures have , again and again been trespassed upon. “On one occasion,” he says, “ray work-people, who remonstrated, were subjected to gross abuse, tho valley echoing with the .most horrible language.” Apologies, oral or written, were made on each occasion, hnt the offence was repeated. Tho climax, however, was reached on January 21 last, when, little less than a planned and organised raid is alleged to have been made on the laud in question, with no ohaso preceding as an excuse. “This, added to the damage by vermin, heavy taxation, tithes, and th© pestering by swarms of officials of all kinds, overrunning the land like th© locusts of Egypt,” declares Mr. Hurst, “made a sn> all-holder wonder if he would not be better off cultivating a little province in Hades, with his Satanic Majesty as landlord. Fox-hunting like this is fast becoming a pest and nuisance to the whole country-side, and a great impediment to the serious work of dultivating the soil by farmers and small-holders.” After formally withdrawing his permission to the hunt to traverse his land, and announcing his intention to proceed with the destruction of the fox tribe with all possible expedition, the irato farmer concludes: "I intend to spare no effort nor expense to protect my property against your depredations. I „ have had more than enough of this humbug and am disgusted at tho way in which 1 have been treated, and have yet to learn that all business is to be subservient to a few people hunting foxes” The heinousness of Mr. Hurst’s contemplated crime is only folly realised when one remembers that the fox is regarded as a sacred animal by tho hunting community. Did not Brigadier Gerard earn the execrations of the English Army beealuse. mistaking the object of a hunt in Portugal, he attacked tho fete with his sword?