ZOO NOTES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 182, 28 April 1919, Page 10

ZOO NOTES

A REPLY TO CRITICS

(By John Crewes, ex-president of the Wellington Zoological Society.) lii replv to niissraloiiionls which ivero widely circulated, I could, without padding/cover a page oi Tub Dominion with pertinent facts and striking il ■«• trillions to provo the following con tea. 'TirThat the Wellington Zuo lias been bad v mismanaged. (2) That much money has been wasted on it. (3) T ha: the /oo line greatly deterioratel. (I) Ihut Uβ number of the visitors that paid for iulmissiou fo it last year was much, smaller than that of the previous year (a) Hint Councillor Castle and myself have conn more to promote the Zoo than any other two citizens have done, and that Councillor Castle- knows more about, the /oo than anv ten other .councillors. (G) That, the'rapidity with which the special features of tlio Zuo have recently been disappearing calls for i»™« 'ate Njd • sen.cf.ins investigation. (7) That lately the Zoo has become a. menace to the pub- : lie health. (8) That because I have tried to render our Zoological garden morally ; respectable, sanitarily safe and. educaI tiorallv efficient I have been insulted, J misrepresented, hampered, and caliinim- ' But as niv notes are'limited to a column I can onlv illustrate a few points of iny allegations, and offer a few, sampo arguments. Now we know that the uly Council lias repeatedly expressed tinbounded confidence in the curator of the Zoo and I wish to mal;e it clear that 1 do not cherish any vindictiveiiees towards him. I hold the council solely responsiblo for the management and mismanagement of our -municipal institutions. To divert public attention from my exposures of municipal failures and follies certain councillors have repeatedly c<. njured up a grievance which more than two vears ago took place between the Utj Council of that time and myself-a grievance which no oouncil lias ever investigated. It has therefore become necessary for me now for the first time to publish mv version of that grievance, bornewliere about January, 1917, the . uty Council's management of our municipal Zoological gardens had become so lax ana inefficient that I, on more than one occasion, felt it a duty, lo respond to tlio appeal which had been prominently posted in several of our city reserves- Citizens protect your own property.. At that time the Zoo was visited by numerous disreputable characters, and I saw on the slopes of tlio garden up near tho southern end of the kiwis' run scenes that rendered the beautiful walks of !nat port of the garden unfit for young, or any other decent, people to visit, oven on Sunday afternoons. As, howover, my notes are "intended for nl! classes of readers and eonio children honour them witii their attention, I withhold details, ot what I did to abolish that c ass of nuisance, and will simply state what direct y caused the rupture between the Uty Council and myself, and moved me to return, as Amundsen returned to the i;niperor of Germany, a mark, of distinction wliieh had been deprived of its glory. Ono Sunday afternoon when a city councillor had seen something that he cml not like, I think it was 111-usago of an animal, the irate councillor, with heat and emphasis that burned his fiery expression into my memory, said: -There isn't a- damn keeper anywhere to be found." On the following Sunday afternoon, when I entered the Zoo, I saw, at the northern end of the large pond, wiier,e thev could be seen by nil persons entering the' grounds, three or more. soldiers in. uniform. Ono, who was not very young, to handing a bottle and taking money) another was drinking, -.nd the third was vomiting. A more disgraceful scone ot its kind, on a Sunday, in the grounds ot a public exhibition, I have never seen. I searched for a zoo-keeper, but cou d , find nono. Then the ■ sjnnt of an old Cnrnishman rose in me, And I Jolt that, although I could not "take the law into my own hands," my legs were sound and strong, and, as they were borr in the county of wrestling, might be trusted even yet to demand respect, for law and decency. With my Wood i up, then, 1 went and ordered the 'money-taker out of the garden. At first he. sneered, and 'one'of'the younger men muttered something about""a parson"; but as soon-us they perceived that I was a Cornish pareon' and meant business, the big man skulked towards the gate of the garden, arid the other two, as soon as they could,got away. I reported this to one of the City Council's employees. On the following Sunday afternoon I was again in the grounds of the Zoo. Then I met Mr. Gastle, the secretary of the -Wei-. lin E ton Zoological Society, who lold me that a policeman had been talking loudly about me. I went to meet the constable, ami met him with the employee of the City Coune.il. 1 asked the guardian ot the rights of the public what right he had to use the expression which Councillor Castle had reported to me. Ihe young constable wanted to que?!ion me; but, I having told him who I was, asked him to meet me in tho presence of his sergeant the next day. 1 saw the young policemnn and the sergeant. The young man explained that he, having been told bv the curator that a man had clambered over a fence and refused to come out when told to, thought that it was some rough fellow, and never imagined that it was a citizen well-known to the City Council. Then the policeman apologised, and I, having been told that he was not generally discourteous, agreed to bury my grievance. 1 then resolved to go to the Reserves Committee, and ask for an investigation of the management and mismanagement of the Zoo But before I was ready I received from the council a letter, accusing, and, without hearing me, convicting me of disobedience to the-curator; ..-a , ! authoritatively commanding me not to repeat the oflence. ! I treated < v lho offensive letter us an insult, returned my Zoo' pass to the council, asked the curator whether ha had laid an information to the council aitainst mo. and, on his admifision that, ho had. although for years we had been on friendly and confidential terms, I told him that I would no icnw? trust him or again speak to him. It i.uny be that I had unwittingly disobeyed the curator; but if I had it was because I, who years before was nsked by Mr, Bertliiip; to cross the bar in front of a lion's cage nnd play with "Dick" tho lion, nnd who from that time, perhaps, a dozen times in five or six years, crossed publicly and touched the lion; and- a few times crossed another fence and touched a leopardess, did not believe Hint tlie curator was .speaking seriously when he talked about not allowing me to repeat my performances. Now uotice in connection with tluit report the. fact thnt sinco the Zoo was opened inoet of the people that have wanted information about the Zoo have applied lo Councillor Castle and myself, mid that general} - when I crossed live bars, that i might touch the lion and the leopardess, it was to demonstrate lo students, especially to school teachers and their classes whom I had met, by appointment, the powor of kindness to animals, and it will be spun that a desire for the welfare of the Zoo, and a feeling of nimety about my safety and the safety of the public have not been the powers that have kept Councillor Castle out of the membership of the Zoo Committee of the City Council, and repeatedly- insulted me; but that petty jwiloiisies ami oilier o'bvious factors have been the causes.

Councillor Frost has told Uie world that my views arc not like those of any other person, except, perhaps, Councilloi, Castle. In reply to that, I challenge Councillor Frost to publish Mr. Doyle's voccnt report on tho very had condition of tho slaughterhouse in ■ the Zoo grounds; Sir. Morton's remarks on the drainage of that slaughterhouse; Mr. Doyle's report on the burial of a camel, three donkeys, two ostriches, one do;;, and a number of small 'animnls in our Zoological Garden, and i\lr. Morton's reported opinion on the effect of such burials, Did not Mr. Morion pay that the burying of carcasses in tho Zoo grounds must, ultimately result in inwni'flry conditions? And would the reports (hat I have mentioned have been obtained, or ■such burials-not have been perpetuated, if Councillor Castle had not denounced the management of (he Zoo? Tlion let a, report on the burial of the entrails of horses killed in the /00, lo which Councillor Castle recently directed, attention, be obtained and published. To the above lei me ndil a report mi the yoiuiß wolves and jnrknls flint have died in the Zoo. and one on the treatment In which the i>i|,'-tnilcd monkey was subjected, and our on the City Council's row byre as it: was when Councillor Castle and I saw it last Sunday) then tho opinion of overy eano

reader of (he report will, I presume, coincide with mine. Decently Hicro huvo died in the Zoo the tooth-billed pigeon, one nf the rarest ami most valuable birds in Hie" world, Hie lato dipt. Scott's famous dog Osmnn, filiacketon's principal dflf; Oscar, tlie only New World monkeys we had in the '/mi, .laeko, the famous ■monkey Hint, went through the Sonime engagement, the while-headed eagle-, whose -mimicry of laughter was unlike anything J ever heal'd elsewhere, and several of the beautiful rod kangaroos. Several of the most interesting of the fish Unit, w-ere in the aquarium when it irns opened have also disappeared, and the aquarium, except for a few tanks of carp, is a wreek. Add to the recent losses previous disappearances, such as the rhens, Ihe flamingoes,. Iho cranes, the largest ostrich. Ihe Kalin bmver bird, tlio Malleo fowl, tlie herons, the crossbill, the Kgyotian ,goos«. the iviiislliiifr tree duck, tho-native pigeon, the great spotted kiwi, the penguins, the straw-necked, ibis, tlio Chukar partridge, the lilecdiii»-liearr, oifjpons, (he bronze-winced pigeons, ihe blue and. yellow macaw. Hie Madagascar tortoise, Hie lace monitor, tlie Malayan bear, Hie marmosets, ele. etc. Then what sane man, haying liny regard for accuracy, will admit that f exaggerate when I report that Ihe Wellington Zoo has us lo worthy objects of interest greatly deteriorated. 'Aβ soon as the editor will afford mo another column of finace I will write on what in the Zoo is yet worth sarins : cruelly I have seen there, and the .£ls9,which the City Council had to pay in congequ»nce of ignoring an appeal I hod repeatedly urged.