CITY ZOO SUFFERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 173, 24 July 1942, Page 6

CITY ZOO SUFFERS

LOSSES CAUSED BY WAR

Difficulties caused by the war situation have had reflection in the upkeep of the Auckland Zoological Park. Last night the curator, Mr. E. R. Sawer, reported that revenue was £478 less than the estimates, and the expenditure £362 in excess of the estimates. Difficulties, he said, arose from lack of tourist traffic and of country visitors, a universal preoccupation with defence matters, the enlistment of many experienced keepers, the impossibility of replacing casualties among the exhibits, famine prices for fruit and vegetables and a dearth of imported rations essential to the health of the animal collection. Emergency Precautions equipment was responsible for the expenditure in excess of the estimate. Visitors numbered 113,420, as compared with 115,139 in the previous year and 116,961 in the pre-war year of 1938-39. A loss of less than 2 per cent in attendance, despite an extension of the war to the Pacific, was attributed in part to the many service men on week-end leave. Many parents, with new-found duties, had also adopted the practice of sending their children unattended to the zoo, the ratio of juvenile to adult visitors having markedly increased. This development is welcomed, • despite the additional responsibility placed on the staff. Happily, not even a minor .accident .or injury to any member of- the pubHe was reported throughout the year. Restrictions on transport limited the number of visiting schools and institutions to 28. The report was received.