AUSTRALIAN HORSES. 
29 
horses in England are bred : and they should remember that 
low prices and economy are daily becoming more and more 
the order of the day, both with Government and with every 
individual of the public. The economical and wide-awake 
public already require a much better horse for £30 or £40 
than the ill bred, bad-constitutioned, buck-jumping, jibbing 
horses that have hitherto been sent to Madras. 
The Government, the Company, and the public, should 
well weigh every point ’ere they urge on each other to an 
undertaking which will end in the disgust and ruin of one, 
and perhaps all. I myself should be very disinclined to risk 
my money in a breeding company such as the one proposed, 
depending upon India for the sale of their stock. Are the 
projectors and agitators of this embryo Company active men, 
who have earned for themselves a name in horse matters, and 
are going to try their luck on the strength of there being no 
stud, and on the objectionable remounting system, which 
allows the whole selection and fixing of price of horses for 
eight regiments of cavalry, six troops of horse artillery, and 
two horse batteries, to be in the hands of one single indi- 
vidual, and without a public committee ? 
It should be remembered that the salaries and wages of 
every individual in India are being reduced, and also that 
Government are likely to offer lower sums for horses than 
heretofore, and this will be certain if the regular cavalry are 
turned into irregulars. Under all considerations, therefore, 
will £40 repay the “ affluent few for properly - bred horseis, 
after allowing for freight, losses, the salaries and wages of 
superintendent, veterinary surgeon, agent, &c. &c. ? The 
wages of servants in Australia are very high, and in an 
extensive and properly-conducted breeding establishment, 
there must be no lack of hands, or loss from some cause or 
other will be the result. It must also be recollected that the 
uncultivated plains of Australia will no more produce, of 
themselves, good horses, than workhouse fare will make a 
child an athlete. If, therefore, you increase the expense of 
breeding in Australia beyond what it now is, (and certain is 
it that you must,) the price of the horse w ill be greater than 
at present; and who in these changed times will pay more 
than £30 or £40 ? 
It is further stated in this last letter from Australia, that 
“ much valuable time has been allowed to slip by, and we 
fear that from the altered circumstances of the colony, the 
settlers will not take up the matter with that energy w r hich 
they would have done at the period the scheme was first 
