The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JUNE 5,1909. A CRUEL PASTIME.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2520, 5 June 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JUNE 5,1909. A CRUEL PASTIME.

Amongst the. blots on present day civilisation must be included the pastime known as coursing, if one may judge from the exhibitions that have been given during the .past two days at the Park Racecourse. To those -who are not familiar with the features of this so-callod sport it may be as well to outline the main essentials. A hare is let loose in an enclosure and after it has run a short distance a pair of hounds are released to chase it. The course is about five hundred yards in length, by a hundred yards in breadth, and at the end is a brush fence through which the hare, if it ever reaches this point can make, its escape from its pursuers. As a matter of fact tho pair of hounds quickly overtake the hare and, were the contest purely one of speed, the smaller animal rwould be caught and killed long ere the goal was approached. But, with the marvellous facility for dodging that nature has endowed her with, the terrified hare, whenever the hot breath of her pursuers comes close •upon her, doubles hack and the hounds dash past, completely baffled for the moment. But the turn has taken the hare away from her objective, the brush fence. ,and as her huge opponents .hear down upon her once more she dodges again and flies for safety. She makes more ground, hut her success is only temporary and quickly the hounds turn her back once more. And so this sport (?) goes on. It is usually considered un-British to set two opponents at one and certainly the hare,, if she could speak, would protest most vigorously against the injustice of having two hounds pitted against her. With one on either side she knows not which vay v to turn, and it is only when the hound’s teeth are almost closing on her hapless form that in sheer desperation she ventures to change her. course. Each manoeuvre and its subsequent spurt leave her more tired and less fit for the next till finally she falters, makes a. mistake in dodging, and is promptly seized by the nearest hound. Of course this does not always occur. Sometimes the speedy little animal is able to make her escape, hut not before undergoing agonies of torture in her desperate race for life. In such an event the crowd will probably cheer the game little creature for the successful outcome of its efforts at selfpreservation.' This attitude iii itself suggests that the spectators . pos- ' sessod some small measure of sympathy with the wretched, hunted animal,, but,:, the well of, human kindness must have surely run' almost dry if they wcr.e able to look on unmoved whilst, fully a dozen times in its perilous run, the hare had the narrowest escape of : being torn asunder. Go. more than cine' occasion at the recent meeting the public was treated to the spectacle of. seeing the- hare literally torn to pieces as the two struggled for. fits possessionh Why such, dV-

possessed Of kindly instincts and the slightest sympathy with the creatures of the underworld. It seems to us that the world might easily be improved by a mere practical recognition of trio essential oneness of all things, in nature. There should be more of the spirit displayed by the. great hearted poet who “wrote of the insignificant mouse:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie, Oh, what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou needna’ start awa’ sae hasty, Wi’ hick’ring brattle 5 I wad be laith to rin and chase thee, Wi’ murd’ring patttle!

We occasionally hear of an outburst of indignation against prize-fighting, and the recent Johnston-Burns fight provided an instance of the public abhorrence of brutality disguised under tlio name of sport. But prize-fighting, with all its drawbacks, lacks the cruel features attaching to the practice of coursing. Burns certainly got badly punished, but ho entered the ring of his own free will, and could have left at any moment he chose. The poor helpless hare is, however, thrust into an arena, and with nothing to aid her hut her natural agility, the most timid of living creatures is placed at the mercy of a couple of hounds. It is only fair to those concerned in the government of coursing to state that they donot desire that there shall be any killing, and much prefer that the hare shall ho able to make its escape. In this connection, His Worship the Mayor, who graced the recent meeting with his presence, remarked that ho had been asked to apologise for the condition of some of the hares. In other words, the Club officials were sorry that, owing to unfortunate., circumstances, certain of the hares were in a comparatively weak condition, and would thus have their chances of escape considerably reduced. But there was no suggestion that the hares should not he victimised on this account. The sport( ?) had to go on, and so the hapless little wretches were butchered at the rate of 12 on the first day and 11 in the .second. The whole thing is repulsive, un-British, unsportsmanlike, and should be repugnant to any who give the matter consideration. That so many should recognise and support the pastime can only be the result *of thoughtlessness, and we trust that the day is not far “distant when the legitimate sporting inclinations of the people will he satisfied without such outrages on refined feelings as are constituted in the hunting of hares and the shooting of “pigeons.