57 



because anything undertaken by the Government hi 

 this country becomes of colossal size, is very hard 

 to manage, and costs a great deal of money. 



Much more is done by private enterprise in this 

 country than in other countries. There is no doubt 

 the great thing we do want is to encourage the 

 breeding of good half-bred horses for riding and 

 driving. What won't do for riding very often 

 will do for driving. There are two considerations 

 with regard to this. We all know now-a-days 

 that the farmer wishes to get the quickest return 

 he possibly can for his money, and he does it 

 much more quickly by breeding cart-horses than 

 he would by breeding half-bred horses. He does 

 not get rid of the half-bred horses so quickly ; they 

 require more looking after, and are more liable to 

 accident ; still, I do hope that there are, in many 

 parts of the country, tenant-farmers and others 

 who will continue to breed half-bred horses, and to 

 them, I think, we may give a helping hand. 



By encouraging those who keep stallions, in 

 giving them prizes — the amount of which will assist 

 them in the purchase of those horses — we shall 

 enable a better horse to be brought to the farmers' 

 doors. The difficulty in this may be that a person 

 who buys any sort of a thoroughbred stallion is not 

 particular as to his hereditary soundness. I cannot 

 help thinking, taking even the modest sum of ^3,000 

 a year from Queen's Plates money, that in the month 

 of September the country might be divided into 



