INDIAN REMOUNTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12911, 28 February 1906, Page 7

INDIAN REMOUNTS.

Some months ago,, says the Melbourne "Argus/' Colonel Goad, the DirectorGeneral of the. Indian Army Remount Department, wrote' to the' Premier of New South Wales (Mr Carruthers), and urged that greater attention should be paid to the breeding of Indian remount horses for the Indian army. Colonel Goad pointed out' that the; Indian.'army, required from' "3000 to 4000 horses a year, at a standing price of '£4S;each; fop.-remount purposes. Hitherto Indian requirements in respect to army horses have-been filled- id. Australia, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Colonel Goad' stated, that in view of the decreasing supplies from Australia, he. had imported horses from North America, Hungary, and the Argentina, but none of them were equal to the Australian horses. This' emirent authority stated that the Indian army, with Australian, horses, was the best horsed army in the world, and he added that Australia'had'a record second to no country in the world for breeding good horses'of'every class. . , Since , : the f .publication of. Colonel Goad's letter; conferences of horse-breeders were called by the New South Wales and Victorian Governments to consider the question of the" improvement of horse-breeding. No result- accrued from the New South Wales conference, but in Victoria the -Minister; of .Agriculture (Mr Swinburne) was advised to import a number, of Welsh pony stallions and lease them to approved studmasters, and this the Minister agreed to do.

Draught horse breeding is coming along very well. It fell away some years ago, when the price of draught stock was so low ? thatit did not pay to breed good animals:- : *---''With the revival of wheatgrowing iin Northern Victoria; and'Riverina (brought about largely by. the', use of fertilisers) , an increased < demand set in for' draught horses; There was also a brisk trade with Western..Australia,'"caused by the opening up of that state after the gold/discoveries: Consequently prices for draught stock improved, . breeding on the farms, where most of ' the horses of ♦ all classes are now raised, became, general, and more attention was paid both to the class, of sires and. mares used,' with the result that v a yery ; notable advance has been made in the character of the younostock bred during the last six or. eight years. _

The same attention requires to be "iven to breeding carriage horses and Indian re r mounts. It costs no more to keep a valuable animal worth £3O or £4O at four years old than a weed 'which is almost unsaleable. Many people imagine that the day for stimulating horse-breeding in Victoria has rgone by, because the '« "used more profitably for dairying and lamb raising. The day of big stations with large "mobs of. horses has passed, but it should not be forgotten that Victoria has 376,000 horses, or more than a fifth of the total in the -Commonwealth (1,547,000)/ and that most of the breeding to keep up that great number and provide a surplus • for export takes place on .the farms, where one, two, three, or half-a-dozen foals a year are raised. It would be a gain all round to improve the type of the light horse stock bred on the farms.