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CHAPTER XVII. 



SPORT 

 A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR. 



1 AM not going to put a heading of reference to this chapter ; it is too 

 short to require one, and it is of such importance it should be read from 

 •end to end, and the contents indelibly impressed upon the memory. 



Ffom this short chapter can be learned the enormous amount of 

 good which, in the most practical manner, is done to our nation by 

 Sport pure and simple. 



In this book I have not dealt with Yachting because I know nothing 

 about it. I am, however, enabled to make an estimate of the amount of 

 money spent upon it, by reason of the courtesy of the Editor of the 

 Fields who gave me figures to start with. He tells me that approxi- 

 mately there are 3,300 craft belonging to members of our various yacht 

 clubs. Their tonnage comes to something like 140,000 tons, the cost 

 of building is about £40 a ton, and that of maintenance £10 a ton 

 yearly. That about 8,000 able-bodied seamen are employed during the 

 season at an average of 25s. a week, they finding themselves in food. 

 The pay to skippers averages about £75 a year. These estimates refer 

 •only to yachts of ordinary construction whether for steam or sailing. 

 In no way do they deal with vessels built for millionaires, nor yet for 

 race yachts of the extraordinary class. 



According to these figures, and putting the season at four months, I 

 shall bring out the cost of yachting in a table with the four grand and 

 •cardinal branches of sport with which I have already dealt. 



When dealing with hunting, I made no allusion to what is expended 

 by gentlemen upon clothing requisite for that sport, nor did I provide 

 for wear and tear of their hunters. These are items of such im- 

 portance I shall now bring them in. With regard to wear and tear 

 •of racehorses, I consider that, as so many of them increase in value to 

 such a wonderful extent, depreciation in the others is thereby fully 

 provided for. Not so with hunters in a gentleman's stable. They 

 seldom sell at a profit, and most of us know they get torn and worn 

 out with marvellous rapidity. 



As is shown in a former chapter, the value of our private hunters is 

 £9,900,000. For wear, tear, and renewal that must be calculated at 

 15 per cent., therefore it represents £1,485,000 a year. We have 33,000 

 hunting men. Say the value of the hunting wardrobe of each is £25, 

 and that to renew it annually costs £10, we would have invested in 

 hunt toggery £825,000, which, to keep up, takes £330,000 a year. 



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