THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 151

ribs are round, and a large cubical space is thus
afforded for a development of lungs and heart. His
back is short and wide, and loins well clothed with
muscle. These several qualifications being the rule,
and not the exception, have entitled him to the well-
deserved character of carrying weight, performing
long journies, and enduring privation. But the
almost invariable want of obliquity of the shoulder,
or more properly speaking, the angle formed by the
blade and arm bones, renders him a bad hack, and
therefore his mechanical power of recovering his
equilibrium after striking one foot against an in-
equality is greatly reduced. The English horse pre-
sents such a variety of shapes that no description
will suffice for the class; but hunters and frequently
hacks are selected possessing all the qualifications of
the Arab, except perhaps his extreme docility and
length of pasterns; and in addition, with shoulders
adapted for riding at either a walk or a gentle trot over
the roughest ground. The size of the English horse
gives to him greater speed. The horses bred in the
Australian Colonies also present a variety of forms,
some so constructed as to be comparatively worthless,
and a very large portion possess every requisite for
speed or endurance, combined with such formation of
shoulders as to render them excellent hacks.

9. To recapitulate, it is my opinion that horses
   with qualities-or, in other words, conformation-
   adapted for a special purpose, and equally well de-
   veloped, are equal, irrespective of the country in
   which they are bred, and the circumstances under
   which the task is performed being also equal. There-
   fore, I do not advocate the principle of supplying
   remounts for the Army in India from any individual
   country, on the ground that specific characters are
   thus transmitted to the produce, but that horses of a
   certain construction, and known to be best adapted
   for the service, should be obtained irrespective of
   country; nevertheless, it cannot be denied that,
   where selection is strictly adhered to, the effects of
   country and climate may have a favourable influence
   in the course of generations, but is not apparent in
   immediate descendants.

10. I may now allude more especially to the
    breeding of horses in Australia, as affecting the
    supply for the Army in India. The colonies I have
    visited present features in every way adapted for the
    rearing of horses, such as large enclosures, undulat-
    ing ground, equable climates, and abundance of
    nutritive grasses and saline herbage. No protection
    is required for the young stock during the winter
    months, and the prevalence of bush affords shade in
    the hot weather. Entire horses can be depastured
    with the necessary number of mares, and therefore
    little expense is incurred. Colts of unquestionable
    pedigrees and qualifications can be purchased for stud
    purposes in many parts of each colony at reasonable
    prices; and mares are kept in a state approaching
    nature, thus rendering them unusually prolific.
    Therefore, by a judicious selection of sires and dams,
    very serviceable stock may be insured at moderate
    cost. The squatters and freeholders have a natural
    desire for horse-breeding, independent of the neces-
    sity for producing a certain number required for
    station work, which is proved by the yearly increased
    number of nominations for the various racing stables.
    The Mares' Produce Stakes for this year closed with
    fifty-seven nominations; for the next year sixty-
    eight were nominated; for 1876, ninety-nine were
    named; and for 1877, the stakes have closed with
    two hundred and fifty entries.

11. I now give a concise account of the opinions I
    have formed of the breeding stock met with, and
    which are the result of minute examination of every
    entire horse and careful inspection of the brood
    mares at each station visited. In my detailed report,
    the genealogies of all the important stallions have
    been given, and from which it will be seen that the
    best blood from England has been introduced from
    time to time, and in most instances directly de-
    scended from progenitors which have displayed the
    greatest staying powers. Half-bred stallions are
    rare; a few trotting horses have been imported from
    America, and Norfolk trotting stallions from Eng-
    land. Innumerable thorough-bred entire horses
    have been and still are imported, and a few Cleve-
    land coach horses have also been received from Eng-
    land. Arabs have been imported for some years, and
    at the present time there is a great demand for this
    class. A large number of English thorough-bred
    mares have been received in the colonies, and are
    still occasionally imported. The stallions as a class,
    I have no hesitation in saying, are excellent, and
    those most suitable to produce horses for ordinary
    purposes have been bred in the colony and from im-
    ported stock. The Arabs, though possessing many
    excellent qualities, have, with very few exceptions,
    the defective angle at the shoulders so common with
    them. The Norfolk trotting stallions in a few in-
    stances are heavy, but the American horse stationed
    near Wangaratta is well fitted to produce serviceable
    stock. The mares used for brood purposes are of
    very various classes, and cannot, as a whole, be con-
    sidered good. The imported mares have been selected
    from being winners, dams of winners, or the progeny
    of winners. From these more powerful mares have
    been obtained by the union with thorough-bred sires
    of stronger growth. There are also a great number
    of mares of a nondescript character, which cannot
    prove remunerative. This may, in the first place, be
    attributed to the demand for draught-horses when
    gold was discovered in Victoria, which led breeders
    to endeavour to produce heavy horses by any admix-
    ture of blood with the possibility of obtaining weight,
    the result frequently being the production of an
    animal possessing the qualifications of neither parent.
    And the stock in many instances still presents the
    incongruousness of clumsiness of carcase and light-
    ness of limb, or vice versa. Secondly, from want of
    a regular market, horses, except in the vicinity of
    large towns, frequently became almost valueless, and
    no further attention being paid to the breeding, the
    result was too close a degree of consanguinity, and
    consequent degeneration.

12. I now beg leave to adduce the results of my
    investigations, as far as the present supply of re-
    mounts for the Army in India can be depended on.
    In the Colonies of Victoria and New South Wales,
    over 500,000 horses may be considered domesticated,
    that is, in daily use, are broken, or periodically mus-
    tered. From these a large number could be selected,
    well adapted for the different branches of the service
    in India. They could be purchased at the stations at
    certain periods of the year, when mustered, or at
    other times by previous arrangement, retained by
    the owner a reasonable time until a general collection
    took place, and then driven to the port of embarka-
    tion. Their ages would be between three and four
    years, and as the foaling season commences in
    August, when submitted in Calcutta would be about
    four years old. All of them would have been handled
    and probably ridden three or four times. The
    majority of horses exported to India are purchased
    in the sale yards of Melbourne, where extremely low
    prices are occasionally given, often as low as a few
    pounds, and rarely exceeding fifteen. Horses bought
    at these marts for less than a pound have been ex-
    ported to India. However, this is not a proof that
    the intrinsic value of horses bought at such low
    figures does not exceed the prices paid; for, if not
    possessing any speciality for the Melbourne market,
    and from the absence of competition, owners are