ANOTHER MARE'S NEST

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2214, 29 July 1914, Page 3

ANOTHER MARE'S NEST

something about the zoo aquarium: Under the heading of "An Expensive Gift," our morning contemporary, with characteristic indifference as to facts, made a slighting reference to the ■Marine Department's'gift to Wellington of the aquarium, which was such an interesting feature of the recent Auckland Exhibition. The "Times" said:— ' "In its bare state, as it arrived from .■ the northern city, the 'aquarium' con-; sisted of several.wooden boxes, or tanks, some glass fronts, and a few specimens.; of fresh-water fish. It-is stated that; to place it in position has cofet the City j Council several hundreds ;• of pounds. The exact sum ' is not- ascertainable.' The result is an artistic structure, and; it will no doubt prove an attraction.! Tho expenditure has been on an asphalted path, plaster and rock-work, water;' 6upply, and metal work. Some of thei plates.of glass'wore broken in transit,, from Auckland. The expenditure on/ erection, however, perhaps supplies thereason for Auckland's at the time plicable refusal to accept the 'gift.' In many quarters it is held that the Gc~ : vernment, to do the fair thing, should. pay for tho cost of erection." ,On making careful inquiry into thb matter yesterday, it was ascertained that the aquarium, as it is set up at present in the Zoo at Newtown Park, is wholly a Government gift to Wellington, and tho building of the rockery, concrete, and asphalt work is all being paid for by tho Marine Department, whoso official, Mr. L. F. Ayson (who had the advico of Professor Prince, of Canada) approved of tho plan, and virtually selected the site of tho aquarium. Tho expense to the city, rnentioned by our contemporary as that va{?ue amount "several hundred pounds," is in actual fact merely a fraction of that sum, coin-' prising only the cost of the rough rock (not its erection), and the "connecting up of the aquarium with the city's water system. ■ Tho Minister of Marine's gift was indeed a very generous one, due in part to_ Councillor G. Frost's activity m seizing on Auckland's refusal as a chance for Wellington to augment its attractions in connection with' the Zoo. At present the Marine Department is nurturing specimens of fish'that are later on to. bo aiven a homo in the now :iqnni'3iun. The fish, however, are not to be placed in the tanks for ,'inother six or "iglifc weeks, as lime has to be allowed: for the concrete to dry thoroughly before tlicv can with safety be deposited in their new quarters. .