WELLINGTON ZOO

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2467, 21 May 1915, Page 6

WELLINGTON ZOO

A VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. "LIKE BEING LANDED IX A NEW AND STRANGE COUNTRY." Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, of Lincoln Agricultural College, recently paid a visit to the Wellington Zoo, in company with Mr. F. S. Pope. The visitor was very favourably impressed by what he saw, and after returning home he sent the following interesting letter to Mr. Pope:— "I have been thinking over the ploasure I had in visiting with you the Zoological Gardens at Newtown Park, and would like you to express to the gentlemen that started the collection my great appreciation of their work. During my university' career I spent much time to the 6tudy of the mammals, and the dried skins and .drier bones that I had pored over in my younger days were breathed upon and hecame alive in a double sense that afternoon at Newtown. < I do not think I shall ever forget my delight in seeing —then for the first time —the flat-footed walk of the bears, the cat-like antics of the leopards, the restless motions of the jackals, the shuffling gait of the hyena, tho lean litheness of the wolves, the circling gambols of the sea lions, the stare of the solemn owl, tho startling clearness of colour in the plumage of the mandarin drako; or in hearing the bra.v of the ass, or the roar of the lions. To any visitor, these things and a hundred besides must seem like being landed in a new and strango country, and luoky are the people of Wellington to have so much entertainment ever at their doors. The arrangements and the conditions, too, are so astonishingly fortunate. One expects a Zoo to be a series of closed cages, ranged side by side, but at Newtown you have all the delights of hill and valley, tree and stream, as a setting and background to the animals, so that you stand on a rise, and through a vista of pines look down into the sea lions' pond, or the homes—ono oan hardly say cages—of a thousand feathered beauties. The 'thousands' is not an exaggeration. I had no idea that the collection was one-tenth as extensive as it really is, and it is most astonishing that so great a number of mammals, birds, and fishes has been collected during the few years that tho Zoo has been in existence.. Doubtless there are in the world many better zoos than Wellington's, but to one that has never been out of New Zealand, Newtown Park is one of 'the Dlnces that in tho whole ranee of our islands is most worth a visit."

Captain W. E. Christie, who, for somo time past, has been acting as assistant director of supplies and transport for Ctago, has arrived in Wellington to go into eamp.at Trentham. He has boeu appointed quartermaster to the new infantry unit that is iu course of formation. Ho is an experienced soldier, having seen service in the Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth New Zealand Contingents in the Boer war. His position prior to the outbreak of war was quartermaster to tho sth Mounted Eogiment (Otago Hussars), and he showed a very special aptitude for this class of work —an aptitudo that is now being recognised. Captain Christie, who is 36

years of age, and unmarried, carried on tho business of a produce merchant in Kosl.yn.

.Mr. ff. S. Williams, who was up at Cains College, Cambridge, when war broke out, and is a son of Mr. W. T. Williams, of To Ante. Uawke's Bay, is a private in the Ist King Edward's JSiHW