subs. (colonial).—Orig. a cavalry horse imported into India from New South Wales; now applied to all ‘cattle’ brought from Australia.
1863. B. A. HEYWOOD, A Vacation Tour at the Antipodes, 134, note. Horses are exported largely from Australia to India even. I have heard men from Bengal talk of the WALERS, meaning horses from New South Wales.
1866. TREVELYAN, The Dawk Bungalow, 223. Well, young shaver, have you seen the horses? How’s the WALER’S off foreleg?
1873. Madras Mail, 25 June. For sale. A brown WALER gelding (Advt.).
1888. KIPLING, Plain Tales from the Hills, 224. The soul of the Regiment lives in the Drum-Horse who carries the silver kettle-drums. He is nearly always a big piebald WALER.
1896. Melburnian, 28 Aug., 62. Gaunt won the Regimental Cup Steeplechase this year on an Australian mare of his own. Australian horses are called WALERS in India, from the circumstance of their being generally imported from New South Wales.
