PIT PONIES.
[To TIM EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sza,—In-the-Spectater for-August-6th and 20th have appeared letters-on this subject. The first, if my memory. serves me, was to the effect that pit- ponies- were as a class in need of Government legislation : that last infirmity. In last week's. issue a gentleman who for- some reason signs himself "Practical" gives proof of his carelessness in assuming that now de guerre. In the first place, pit ponies as a class are not badly -used; for-the very-practical reason that it does not pay. to employ- weaklings or underfed; whether men or animals. The big collieries, which only use pit poniesto feed the tabs to the main haulage roads, and the smaller ones, which use them all over the pit, are alike under the supervision of the Royal •Sooiety for Prevention of -Cruelty to Animals. Speaking for the Midlands, if- it- is possible for • one man to do so, the average-collier-is kind to the pony entrusted to him ; it is to his interest to be well served. The question of feeding them is purely trn'economic one. Does- it- pay to have a few ponies in good-condition- or-many-ponies half starved ? As regards the-suggestion that- Germany et- hoc genus omit surpass us because- their collieries have only haulage rope systems, "Practical" has either never been down a large colliery whole he will have to be careful in avoiding the moving ropes, hauling the tubs, or never been down a small one where the broken mine or the dipping faults have made such haulage an-impossibility. If a case of cruelty-occurs to pit ponies, may I suggest-that; instead of- interesting clergymen or even Germans, the case should be reported to the owner of the mine or, better stilt, to the underground manager?—I - am,
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