THE CIRCUS MENAGERIE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1647, 14 January 1913, Page 8

THE CIRCUS MENAGERIE.

[By John'Crewes, President of tho .Wei ,-lington Zoological Society.] : -■••.'"!'-.:. ■ .1:. :■'■'''■■

'; Among tho most interesting of my reminiscences are mj\visits to'the'menageries which by such enterprising showmen as the Woinbwells, Beatties or Batteys, I have forgotten: which, and.Bostocks, were brought.to the little.ancient township in which I was born and reared. Yesterday ,1 renewed ray youth by visiting the menageries connected with Wirth Bros,' Circus.. The menagerie breught from dim chambers of memory'tho elephants, lions, leopards, tigers,' bears, monkeys, and many other wild animals of long ago. It brought,'also, forms of laughing girls arid boys, which.since then have changed,: and passed into tho silent gloom .of cemeteries, in which: they sleep beneath the flowers of many lands. The fact which most forcibly'struck me while I was in Wirth'is menagerie, however, was that, although education was not aa loudly lauded in the far-away time and the quaint old township in which I was a boy, as it is in. New Zealand to-day; the parents and teachers' of the' children among whom I was brought" up, ■ wisely made a much more general and profitable use of a visiting menagerie than , the parents ■ and teachers of the children of New Zealand rank&ofWirths' menagerie. .Every child in. the places which the menagerie visits ought to see the hippopotamus, the magnificent herd of elephants, the wonderful troupe of performing bears, and the splendid hounds, as well as the exceedingly beautiful leopards, tiger, and other animals interesting, ,though more common. Tho hippopotamus always reminds me or Lord Brougham, Professor Owen, and ■other eminent men'of the'past, who with intense interest awaited and welcomed the arrival of the first hippopotamus that wa9 brought to England in my time. Years ago I suggested, and I now more emphatically repeat, that'the Government of New Zealand and the municipal bodies throughout the Dominion, odght to 'grant concessions to Wirth Bros., in consideration of tho great educational services they render by exhibiting the costly menageries they bring to New Zealand, and every child of school age where tho menagerie is exhibited ought to see it. I have never forgottemthp varuabUvlessons mv teachers taught ttierr classes after the school had been taken to a menagerie and, sympathising with tho children of ■' New Zealand, I say that nu hour m Wirths' menageri© ought to bo wortn a great doal to them in after .'time. .