Popular Show

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 290, 28 February 1928, Page 12

Popular Show

WIRTH’S FAMOUS CIRCUS ADVANCE AGENT BUSY One of the busiest men in Auckland at the present time is Mr. G. L. Petersen, advance manager of Wirths’ Circus, which will arrive in Auckland by three special trains from the South on Thursday week. The details to be attended to in anticipation of the arrival of this monster show are numerous and troublesome. First of all Mr. Petersen experienced considerable difficulty in securing a satisfactory site for pitching the canvas city, which is Wirths’. He has now concluded his arrangements in that direction, and is actively engaged with his formidable commissariat problems. The staff of the circus, 125 strong, calls for quite a lot of thought in the matter of catering, but it pales to insignificance beside the tremendous ta.sk of providing adequate

nourishment for 11 elephants, 40 horses, I six lions, six tigers and numerous bears, monkeys and mules. The lions require 125 pounds of raw beef daily, and the elephants would complain bitterly if their half-ton of oaten hay was at all unsatisfactory. The bears want the entire output of a city bakery, while a couple of dozen tins of condensed milk and several pounds of peanuts have to be for the monkeys. Thirty years of circus work in Australasia, have, however, familiarised Mr Petersen with his difficulties, and when the army of men and animals arrives next week, it will find everything ready and waiting. So excellent is the organisation of the show that it will open the night of the day on which it arrives. This interesting travelling town will be established on the Old Dock site during its stay in Auckland. Mr. Petersen is a New Zealander born, and was well-known in Dominion trotting centres. He still takes a great interest in the sport and endeavous to sandwich a meeting or so between his ordinary, or rather extraordinary, duties. The circus., according to reliable Southern reports, is a bigger, better show than ever before, which is mainly due to the enterprise of Mr. George Wirth, who engaged many new artists during his last trip abroad. Wirths has retained its great popularity for 47 years, despite the keen competition of other varieties of entertainment, and the immense overhead costs in transport.