THE NORTH NEW ZEALAND COURSING CLUB.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 949, 14 May 1908, Page 5

THE NORTH NEW ZEALAND COURSING CLUB.

The coursing season will be opened as far as Auckland is concerned next Wednesday, when the North N.Z. Coursing Club will commence the May meeting. The events to be decided are the Challenge and Maiden Stakes and for each of these very good nominations have been received. A good supply of hares has been received from the south and these are in good running order, so that it is hoped that while the trials between the dogs may be keen, the percentage of hares killed will be very small. Nothing is further from the desires of the club than the death of the hares which are much too expensive to be killed. All that is wished for is a good working trial between the competing greyhounds, ending in the escape of puss. With this object in view the hares are regularly

fed and are driven over the course daily to the exits provided to facilitate their escape. This teaches them which way safety lies so that in the actual course they lose no time in making for home. Surely this should silence those critics, who, knowing nothing of the rules governing the sport, recklessly condemn it as wantonly cruel, than which nothing is further from the truth. That it has been a popular sport for centuries is a fact which speaks for itself. In connection with Wednesday’s running the final payment and draw will be made at the Federal Hall, on Monday next, at 9 p.m.