Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1895. THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE TRADE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 275, 31 October 1895, Page 6

Sporting Review AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS' GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1895. THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE TRADE.

A lecture -upon the Australian horse trade and its development for military and domestic purposes, which was given a short time back in Sydney, has “ riz ” our American friends considerably. The meeting was held under the auspices of the United Service Institute of New South Wales, and the principal speaker was Mr Richard Rouse, who fell foul of the people of the U.S.A, by his wholesale condemnation of the American trotter, whose breeding he admits he does not know. Mr Rouse was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald as follows : — “ Mr Rouse said that if horse-breeding, was carried on in this colony in the way that he was about to suggest he thought there would be a revival in this particular trade, and that New South Wales would have no difficulty whatever in securing good markets for her horse stock, and would regain the prominence which she once held in the early part of the present century. (Hear, hear.) He believed that some parts of the colony were capable of producing horses equal to any in the world, and in fact he thought that no one could gainsay that statement. (Hear hear.) He had undertaken the task set before him more with a view of promoting discussion than anything else, and although he did not expect everyone to agree with him he was sure that the ventilation of the subject from various points of view could not but have a good effect in promoting, the object which he knew they all had in view. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Rouse then proceeded to the immediate subject matter of his lecture, and in the courseof a not very lengthy but essentially practical address he pointed out that the markets of the world were open to Australian breeders, if they could only furnish the type of horse required, - and. that his experience, extending over a number of years, had led him to the conclusion that the Yorkshire coach horse and the Cleveland Bay were the most serviceable type for producing animalspossessed of the necessary bone, strength and endurance for military purposes, and at the same time an equable temper which would render them valuable for domestic use. An important matter with, regard to breeding mares was that they should be worked either in saddle or harness, as by that course they discovered and developed all the good qualities that they possessed. The worst class of horse, in his opinion, for stud purposes was the American trotting horse. (Hear, hear and laughter.) He did not know how he was bred, but as a stud horse he produced a very nondescript animal, incapable of any sustained effort, and he was, therefore, unfit to produce stock suitable for hard work. (Hear, hear.) Such a horse as Major-General Hutton a short time ago recommended for military purposes could be produced by the use of the Yorkshire coach horse, and he believed if his ideas were carried out

Australia would be able to supply not only the Indian market but the English also.” With such a report before them it is not to be wondered at that the American journals take hold of .Mr tlouse and remonstrate with him in that gentle manner for they are noted. The breadth of his “ ignorance and egotism ” is cheerfully commented upon, and certainly the speaker was badly out when he stated that the trotter is a nondescript animal and incapable of any sustained effort. On the contrary, if you regard the matter from the point of utility it has to be admitted that the trotter represents a. more useful class than the galloper. And the records of trotting show that the breeding farms of the States have produced record-makers for ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty, and a hundred miles. Away back in 1853 Conqueror put up the record for 100 miles by trotting it in Bhr 55min 53sec. Later on, in 1874, Girder trotted fifteen miles in 47min 20sec ; Satellite covered four miles in lOmin 52|see on August 12th, 1887; and in 1893 Nightingale hoisted the three-mile standard with 6min 55£sec inscribed thereon. As to the breeding of the trotter, the twelve volumes of the Trotting Stud Book show that the foun-

dation of the breed was of the best English stock, from which, by careful selection, the breeders of the U.S A. produced a distinct breed, which, an American journal remarks with pardonable pride and perfect truth, “for either stamina or speed, either to wheels or saddle, will beat any other breed in the world from one to a thousand miles.” Some years ago the French Government sent a commission of cavalry officers to examine the horses of the U.S.A., and they pronounced Mambrino King the most perfectly proportioned horse they had ever seen. As to endurance, there is the.case already referred to of Conqueror’s hundred-mile performance, and when in 1893, at Fleetwood Park, the black gelding Pascal trotted five miles in 12min 45sec, a challenge by his owner to trot him against any horse of any breed for any distance at five miles or over, met with no response from the English .owners of fast roadsters and coachers. Naturally, it is the desire of everyone in the Australias to see the Colonial horse markets prosper, but in getting good road -classes our producers will always have to' base their foundal ions on the sto jk for ?which America is so famous.