PRESENT FOR ZOO

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1931, Page 6

PRESENT FOR ZOO

MUCH-TRAVELLED * TORTOISE. -- j AUCKLAND; September, if : • A tortoise of unusual size which during the last three years, has voyaged about 70,000 miles on the steameiyTongariro, has now found a perrPanent home ashore in the Auckland Zoo. This queer little creature, which is of the African tiger species, measures 7 inches by 10 inches on his underside and is the largest of its kind in Auckland. This much-travelled totoise has . an interesting history. He was named ’.Perseus —Percy for short—by the ship’s cjomp-in.v and was originally bought for 3/6- by the third engineer of. the vessel, Mr R. Butler, from an Arab when the Tongariro called at Port. Said throb- years ago. Perseus became a favourite on board, and had the freedom of the ship.

Ownership changed hands two or three' times, the purchase price on .onp occasion being- a dozen bottles of- ale. Eventually the unofficial member of the crew was acquired by the filth 1 engineer, Mr R. Bailey. Although the -pet has made it a habit to crawl here, there, and everywhere .about steel decks. Providence has -looked after him backward and forward over the ocean and nn and down the coasts of many countries. Beginning to find Perseus an exacting charge, the fifth engineer offered the tortoise to the Auckla.nd-Zooauth-orities. After . formalities: had been carried out. including the giving o r ,a clean bill of health, and permission to sta.v 'here permanently. Percy was handed over to the curator cf the .Zoo. after his shell had been burnished by the engineer. s. .. .A