Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers' Gazette With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1905. A HINT FROM JAPAN ON BUYING HORSES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 801, 13 July 1905, Page 6

Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers' Gazette With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1905. A HINT FROM JAPAN ON BUYING HORSES.

A great deal has been written of late on the difficulty experienced by the agents of the Indian Government in purchasing remounts, and much has been said concerning the deterioration of the Australian horse. Many suggestions have been offered to remedy this, including one of the establishing of a Government farm. On this subject the “ Sydney Mail” points out that the idea of a huge Government stud farm will commend itself only to billet hunters. Fancy a Government handling a couple of hundred thousand horses with the idea of making it pay, or to improve the breeds under the management of an army of officials. The Inidan army authorities are trying it, and have so far succeeded at a cost of £l2O per remount, delivered into the hands of the cavalry horsebreaker. The main trouble is the price. If the Indian authorities were to etsablish a depot in Australia, and buy first hand, and give the breeders that substantial margin of profit which goes into the pockets of the middlemen, they could get the horses they need, and as many as they want, at the same cost as the Government now pays. Recently the Japanees Government had no trouble in securing 10,000 horses that were good enough to carry any soldier in the world, be he British, Boer, Japanese, or Russian. They took them from 15 hands to 17 hands. Your British officer does not like big horses. The calculating little Japs came, paid a good price, and got the horses they needed, instead of standing off in their own country and asking Asutralians to send them horses at a price, and if they suited they would be taken. If the Japanese had put their requirements in the hands of dealers and shippers, they would have been no better served than was the army in South Africa.

The Japanese have taught the world a few new tricks in warfare on sea and land, as well as in the management of big affairs. In their wisdom they came and bought for themselves, and were well served. The last Japanese order of 10,000 horses would stand them in about £37 a head landed in Japan, which is less than the Indian authorities pay for horses landed in Calcutta, and if all one hears be true about the class of horse selected by the Japs, the wail of the In-

dian dealer is causeless, for a good judge assures me that out of 2000 head of 15.2 horses lie assisted in shipping, not one would be rejected by an Indian dealer, but the latter, in view of big profits, would not give within £lO of the £2B per head the Japanese paid for these horses in Australia. The Indian Government would profit to a large degree if they followde the system adopted by our allies in the East in the purchase of horseflesh.