THE WAMATE COUNTY HARRIERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4539, 15 May 1889, Page 4

THE WAMATE COUNTY HARRIERS.

[COHTBIBCTED.] That the hunting aeMOn ii again in full •wing, was manifest to the Waimato folks on rtiit.urdav morning by tho reappearance of the' hounds, and the old familiar snund.of the horn. It was noticad with satisfaction that the elub had again socured the «ervice« of Charlie Cornelius, their popular huntsman of last season. Ho is •o well known it hardly deeds mentioning that witb him in oharge of the puck followers are sure of plenty of iport and a straight lead. He is mounted this season on Mr

Rhode*' Ben Jl., well known also in this duarict, and" who proved on Saturday that his reputation was well merited. Other arrangements are the same as laat year, with the axceptiou that a change has been made in the whip. The meet on Saturday was at Mrs Price's, Downlands. A considerable number assembled and partook of the lunch which was so kindly provided. After full justice had been done to this, the pack was led out to one of the paddocks between the house and the main entrance gate, but the soarch there proving unsuccessful, they were next tried on the higher paddocks where hares seemed to be quite as scarce. The huntsman here showed the jumping powers of his horse by taking a high five-barred gate in beautiful style, the whip (Butterworth), on Gabriel Junks, following suit over the wire fence. Very shortly after this a hare was found, and took across the road, on each side of which the gorse fences were of moderate height. After a run across the next paddock sho doubled back again and then took over in the direction of the river. A very high gorse fence was one of the obstacles in this run. The height evidently appeared rather formidable to most of the horses, but those who did jump went over in grand style, leaving no sign of a gap for the others. Thoße who followed the huntsman here were Messrs Price, on a grey horse, Davis, on a creamy, and Baker, on " Charlie." The reit got into the running by jumping a gorse and wire fence into the road. The hare then got into the paddock next the river and the scent was lost. It was picked up shortly, however, and the next run was back to the road and the two paddocks previously crossed, and into a paddock in turnips. Here the hare was again lost, and the pack brought back to the grass paddocks and afterwards to the plaotution near the house where a hare was found and killed, never having a chance. There was afterwards a short run down oae of the paddocks and back over various hedges into the plantation, and the proceedings olosed. The day's sport was very enjoyable on the whole. The scent, however, was very difficult to trace owing to the alight breeze that got up, and the runs were consequently rather short, but as they took in a considerable number of juinpß there was plenty of fun, the gorse fences on the roads making Bplendid doubles. The attendance was not as good a« might have been expected, but this was no doubt owing to the rain of the two days previous and to the condition of the ground in consequence. Amongst those present there were iu addition to those already mentioned Messrs Barclay on a grey colt, M. O'Brien on Benatto, B. O'Brien on a bay eolt. P. Jones on Coryphee, E. Riekman on Baincliffe, W. M. Hamilton on a bay colt, 0. Beoketfc on Kast Lynn, Gunn on Sefton, A. Slee on a black colt, and several others whose names our correspondent was unable to obtain.