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IMPORTANCE OF HUNT ESTABLISHMENTS. Horse -Purchasing Officer of English Army Presents a Few Facts Upon the Topic. In a letter to the London Daily Mail.. W. Price Abell of Duffiehl, Derby. presents some unanswerable facta lor the ••stop-hunting in wartime" people to ponder over. In the course of his letter he says: "May I. as one of the mobilization horse-pnrclias ing officers for Derbyshire state that it would have been impossible in this district to get the number of horses asked for by the army had there been no hunting borftes? Wo shall lose minv horses in following through to victory. If you do away with tlie hunting horse, where shall we obtain them from. now that the tramway horse has disappeared and the dray horac is superseded by motors.- There are 20.000 lit hunt horses in the 230 hunts available for the army at i moments notice. "If the hunts are not carried on. an equivalent number of hordl I would have to be kept up by the army at a cost to the taxpayers id" 2.400.000 pounds per year and require 11. MM soldiers to look after then, .nd at -till further cost, as is proved by the fact thai each horse costs the army 120 pounds a year to keep, and requires at least one soldier to two horses. Hence the hunts at the present moment are saving the taxpayers 2. 400. OIK pounds per rear and are liberating 10.0OO men as soldiers. In proof of the foregoing. I heard the late Sir Arthur Mark-hani in the house state that he made it his business to inquire and found that only seventeen eligible men wore employed in looking after these hunt horses. and this was before conscription came in."
