IMPORTANT EQUINE EXPORT.
AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS ARRIVE IN INDIA— INTERESTING AND IN STRUCTIVE INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE AND SHIP PING OF STEEDS.
DONEGAL'S DEMISE— IS ALLOWED TO LINGER IN DEATH THROES TO COP INSURANCE

The following interesting letter has been received from Mr. McDonald, who took a string of horses to India by the s.s. Gracchus. After giving some details of shipboard, he dives in to horsey matters as follows : —

The horses did well ; about 12 died, in including Donegal and a Melbourne pony, Idolatress ; both insured. Donegal had been ailing for some days, and to comply with one of the conditions of the insurance policy, he could not be killed, and he was allowed to die an awful death of paralysis of the tongue, of 10 days' duration. He was emaciated, and his agony was most piteous. It is reasonable that the interests of insurance companies should be safeguarded by horses being allowed a reasonable chance to recover, but that an animal should be allowed to linger in the throes of death for 10 days to meet the demands of insurance conditions, when recovery was an impossibility, is cruelty of the most gross kind, and the captain should have power in such a contingency to order its destruction. It would be well if Shipping companies exacted such authority. A horse might contract or develop a disease that might threaten by contagion the loss of a whole shipment, and ruin a poor, uninsured shipper. Yet the fact of its insurance precludes the possibility of its destruction. The certificate of a veterinary is, under ordinary circumstances, accepted, by insurance companies ; yet, notwithstanding the advice Veterinary surgeon Martin, who was in charge of some horses, this poor brute was allowed to linger and moan in its agony like a human being, because the shipper would not accept the risk of Martin's certificate as being sufficient authority. Fraud has been practised by persons insuring and 'ringing in' other less valuable animals of the same brand as the insured animal It is stated as a fact that a well-known Melbourne pony  supposed to have died on board ship on its way abroad, and its insurance claimed and paid, was subsequently identified by a jockey who got the mount on it at Sydney. It is a most wise policy to insure. From inquiries I made from the shippers on board I heard the health of a horses was in danger until he was safely on terra firma. It is on record that as many as 40 horses have been thrown overboard within four hours of reaching their destination. The difference of opinion amongst the shippers as to the most favourable positions on board to ensure the comfort and good health of the horses is surprising. Some favor the upper deck, believing that after the week of cold weather experienced when leaving Australia (which is usually in the winter), they are advantaged by being housed in a position where they would share the benefit of the sea breezes in the tropics, which are reached after Cape Leuwin is passed. Other shippers say horses on the upper deck are so reduced by exposure that they are further debilitated by the tropical weather. The 'tween-decks are favored, and the lower-deck likewise, and the arguments pro and con as to the advantages of fore-and-aft positions entertaining, some contending that the ship's roll is minimised by one position ; the others assert the ship's action is of benefit to horses, as it provides a form of exercise, and keeps them from sleeping and falling down. I made the matter one of investigation and daily study, and found that the mortality was shared by the lower, upper, and 'tween decks in about equal ratio. I found that some horses received food in moderation, others fairly plentiful. Some were fattened before shipping ; others were medicinally prepared, some predisposed to chills caused anxious care equally with the ones susceptible to heat apoplexy. Horses shared those ills who had the attention of men who boasted the tenth, twentieth, and seventieth trip ; others who were cared for by grooms making their first trip stamped for and cleaned up their feed regularly, and maintained good health throughout. Munderah and Long Tom shared loose boxes on the 'tween-deck immediately under the hatchway, which freely admitted light and air. They occupied berths next each other of equal space, straw-bedded on a floor of ashes. Munderah would lay down and rest ; Long Tom would not indulge in the luxury ; and I might remark that no other horse on board that was provided with the space lay down, except those incapacitated by bad health, Regio was always as lively as a sparrow. I'll be on him every time he runs, and give him a chance to repay the little rubs on the nose I often gave him. Little Stewart thickened, and looked bright and well. The anomalies of what 1 have recited is further emphasised when I remember that Some horses, of all ages and breading, that were bandaged filled in the legs, and other horses in the same category remained unblemished. The mortality was greatest amongst the Queenslanders. Some died with lung congestion, others inflammation, and were called " lungers." Captain McDonald is a most upright gentleman, find has the reputation of being the most conscientious skipper in the horse trade in his regard for the convenience and comfort of  shippers and the welfare of stock. His efforts in that respect were duly recognised by a concert held in his honor, and his health toasted by the whole of the passengers. We reached Madras after 30 days from Melbourne, and one unprepared by book-lore for the series of surprises that awaits him when he enters the city is paralysed and brain-clouded. The architecture, from a cursory glance, has been familiarised by pictures of Oriental countries. The reception of the pilot outside the breakwater is the introduction of an individual who for tedious carrying out of his very responsible duties is the cause of sundry oaths and swear-words.  It took him about four hours to put into the breakwater, the inside of which supplies the place of wharfage. The breakwater is a construction of massive square blocks, many tons weight, with a railroad running its full length, and is circular in shape, with a conical construction of stone at the entrance end. The lighthouse is one of a number of buildings, comprising the courthouse block.  When the boat put into its berth the number of niggers who came out in big, deep boats was a revelation. They swarmed up the side and wanted to take our luggage off there and then. They brought for sale all manner of articles, eatable and artistic.

Paddy Connors took charge of the luggage, and he was so surrounded by blacks at the Customs store, all offering their services, that it is said he spoke in divers tongues. His language, it is said, would choke a phonograph. We walked the horses off  the boat straight into the trucks, and a 12 minutes' ride detrained them into a yard on the beach, and as we led them off the poor brutes threw themselves down in the beautiful, coarse beach-sand like a famished dog would throw itself into the water. They rolled and frisked about and rolled again. As we came along in the horse-truck the mass of juvenile Hindoos, that I expressed surprise at not having seen, disclosed itself to my gaze. I cannot say what it was like, because I don't know of a comparison. If you can imagine a mass of black humanity in a 20ft thoroughfare so thick that you could not pass through without, pushing them aside, then you have a hazy idea. You must view them as loitering, loin-clothed pigmies — monkeys in everything but the facial aspect. It is impossible to write of them ; words could not properly color the scene, the hovels, and the squatting, listless throng. It appeared as though it were a market-place. I now know It is called a bazaar. The place was occupied by bullbundy, a conveyance drawn by a bull of small stature, drawing produce of different kinds, and the yard was dotted by innumerable, impudent black crows. We led the horses to Kecrouse and Madeen's stables, which is a most complete establishment. When we left the train to walk to the stables we were told it was four miles from the boat, I had not had my boots on for' three weeks on the boat ; I will therefore always remember the walk 'just up the street.' It took us two hours to walk the distance. We walked along the beach for about a mile, and met myriads of blacks disporting themselves in their vari-colored turbans and loincloths,  paint-streaked foreheads, differentiating either cast or religion. Innumerable carriages (gharries) of the brougham or victoria type, some with rubber tyres, drawing rajahs (or apparently superior personages), drawn by decent-looking horses, were seen everywhere. It is evening (7 p.m.), and the sweated mass flock to the ' Marina ' (the road that fringes the beach) to breathe the ozone. The Marina is a red road, extending along the beach, and is as level as a billiard- table ; and although it has the appearance of having been swept, it does not receive that attention. The horse-droppings are hand-gathered by females. The multitude of half-clothed, bare-footed blacks that flit to and fro and squat and sit in the dark shadows like so many lurking Jimmy Governors, and the various and numerous vehicles that passed us along the road, which is perhaps an avenue, as it runs through a grove of trees, was bewildering, and clouded the mind with the confusion of a cinematograph's quick-succeeding pictures. I saw an Indian giving another one massage treatment. The hand was taken in the hands of the operator, each finger pressed lightly between the thumbs of the artist (such I'll call him) and rubbed and rolled. Each finger is made to crack at each joint singly and collectively, backward and forward. The whole arm is treated similarly, and the joints doubled back in an alarming way. Then he grips the neck vice-like, in most approved garrotter's style, squeezes it, and turns the head to a position (a la McGinty) it had never previously occupied. The subject was not a 'ready,' as he demonstrated the system in the hand treatment on one of our party. Beggars are plentiful ; and it is said parents have deformed their children to follow that avocation and excite the commiseration of the charitable. You will see, therefore, that, like the policy of New South Wales politicians, the country breeds beggars. I cannot accept the statement about the practice of child-deforming. I have seen too much of their industrial habits even in the few hours I have been here. There is superfluous labor in abundance, and it is necessary to carry a cane to threaten the coons, who by their importunities become a pest. They are always trying to assist you, or put themselves into a job, and when they approach, touching their fore heads (salaaming) and displaying by their smile their ivory-white or brown-dyed teeth, the cane is touched instinctively, which makes premature their offer of service and their solicitations a blank. I reached my room from the stable after the walk 'just up the street' sweated to death almost, and my clothes hanging un-pleasantly close.