WHAT WILD ANIMALS COST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 5, 30 January 1909, Page 3

WHAT WILD ANIMALS COST.

GIRAFFES AND HIPPOPOTAMI : BUIXC, THE UHMIEST IUUCES. Wild animals from the Cizcli Zoological Hardens in Egypt, delivered during the years ISUU-IOOS at London, Marscil- , )cs, Hamburg, and BoUcrdain, realised the following prices. The " king of beasts," the lion, sold comparatively cheap, mainly because the cost of feeding made buyers shy of the investment. 'Eine Wild-born lions realised from £73 to .CIUO. Meiiii'i'i-ie-horn animals cost on an average £lO. A lioness has even sold for under .114: while, on the. olhci hand, X-240 or £3OO is not too big a price to ask for an exceptionally line specimen of lion. ' Puinas-oceasionally described as lnnw i-arc not ill such demand ; Co will often buy one ; fair average specimens f,t.cl. C 1."., 1.20, and a few U3O. Ufa ti.„.r is, however, a high-priced annua ; iflilO is lie lowest figure at which lie sells with 180 for a tigress. A'speciality of value is the European / lv'ix V vouii" one cannot be had tor [ess' than iC'2O, and the full-grown a „ iMl al is worth from 125 to £»;>• Wolves are a weak market ; 12 is mon ivenwc per head, £1 the minimum and \:, (he top price. Catch a fox ipiite vuiiiiif. and the cub may realise U, 10s, or m ,lv as : lull grown, its value is V.. polar bears always maintain then orice Very rarely" does a specimen clianee bands at less than £M ; but other kinds of bear come cheaper. A sea-lion costs 120. The beaver is good for L'"o. a price due to (he a'nnnal s destruction for bounty in the Rhone Valley. Hippopotami have no quotations m some markets. When in supply this prehistoric-looking beast is worth from LliOO to 1750. Elephants are much ,noro widely dealt with. A young one tinny be purchased for from .£2O to Tint most considered of wild animals is the giraffe. Previous 1!)08 it was impossible to liny.-" Mess Hum CI nufl ; hi IUO3-4 the ~. VI shrunk to .I'2">o, which did wot rein.,.' the cost of importation. The actual market value of a young giraffe in good condition mav now be quoted at anywhere from XM)Q to 1(10(1. As to the monkey market, the cliini- ■ .piiiizoe varies a good deal in pidc'B, one in condition fetching from C.".0 to 170. Other big apes are more expra-, . sive, although at. times there goes begging a good chance, as in the Suez market" where a voung oran-oulrang. almost full grown, was on offer nt 18 recently —a real bargain. Barbary apes, of the kind which si ill I Inhabit Gibraltar Rock, sell at .13 to ' £3. Bombay and Houth-Wcst China ' monkeys are'not held of much account: • ,11 -will buy one. Baboons cost more-- • generally from £2 to £2O, according to t&e specimen.

NEVER AGAIN! ['WHY THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER INDIAX MUTINY. In the year 183U, just before the great ■Alutiui, the Indian army consisted of •■lo,ilUi) white soldiers and ,10 fewer than -10,000 natives. In other words, there were mure limn live sepoys to every, 'British soldier.

' To-day, tilty-hvo years later, the proportion is very different. The native army has decreased in numbers to. 'I.J,i,IIUO, while we have over (0,000 01 our own troops in the peninsula. The ratio ha* changed from live to one to ■two to one.

1 Two to o.ie, you will rightly say, is (still a formidable majority, ami if mutiny spread again ill the sepoy ranks '—as recent events in India have led many to believe it may—things might be very awkward for Britain, especially 'for those of our people who live in India. Hut we liave anothsr safeguard. In anle-.Vliitiny days the native army had its own artillery, batteries manned and worked entirely by natives. It was these guns, turned against ourselves, which did such deadly damage and made it so desperately difficult for our little armies ot relief to penetrate to Luckuow and other besieged cities.

' Oil! UNFOKGETTAIiLE LESSON. ' Tne .Mutiny taught us one big lesson —in-ver to trust the natives with guns, ■All aniliery of any value ill India is ill the hands of white men, and next 10 infantry the strongest branch of the British forces in India is artillery. There are no fewer than eighty-eight batteries of Royal Artillery in India, manned by over 13,001) men. 'with 000 officers.

In the Titties there were hardly any railways in India, we had 1 no regular transport service, few arsenals, and no factories. Almost everything iu the way of weapons and ammunition came from home—and home, it must be remembered, was then 12,000 miles away. The iSuez Canal was not in existence, and the 40,000 troops we sent out to help to quell that dreadful rising had to come the long sea route round the Cane. All that is now changed, India is covered with a network of railways, which aggregate more than 25,000 miles in length, and which, in ease of revolt, ■would at once be handed* over to the Army authorities. At Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Agra, and other centres are great stores of military munitions, well guarded by British troops. All kinds of Army stores, from boots and saddles to rilles \ and cartridges, are manufactured in India for her great garrison, and no fewer than sixty of our best general ollicersare at the bead of that garrison. And, iu case of a rising, we could pour ill troops from home at lightning speed. Transports would steam full speed up the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal, and at a pinch we could probably put 150,000 men into the field in a very few mouths. ' BETTEK FED, BETTEIt DIULLED, BETTER AIiSIED. Our white, soldiers are far better housed, better fed, and better drilled than they were iifty years ago. Oik proof is that the death-rate, which was 70 per 1000 per annum before the Mutiny, has fallen to Hi per 1000. Also, the white troops are better armed 1 . They have the new Dce-Enlield riile. while the natives are provided with the older and less etlicieiit U'e-Metford. ' Best of all, the native chiefs are, almost without exception, content with British suzerainty, and loyal to the Crown. These native States are of enormous area. Of the million and a-half square miles which compose India, native chiefs hold rule over 050,000 square miles, or more than a third of the peninsula, and the population, of the native States is sixty-three millions. The armies belonging to the native chiefs are enormous. They number more than 350,000 men, and have over lour thousand guns. Ol' course, these troops are not to be compared (or cllicieiicy with those under lirilish ollicers, but ihev have improve* a great ileal since, in' the vear ISSS, the ISritMi (!«• vriimcnt elaborated a scheme for the training and ci|iiipnicnt of troops in certain States.

KA.IAII TACTICS.

Thee special contingents, partly under British ollicers. now number 17.(1110 men, and are thoroughly cllicicnt. They are known as Imperial Service troops. In case of a revolt, we .hould he lighting with our backs to the friendly native States, while the rebels would be penned between these States ami the sea, It is said by those who know India

It will I>B noticed that i-vpii at profit, when Incliu, as a whole, seems to seethe with discontent, there is mi open treason in tlie native Stales. The rajahs have a short, sharp way with rebels, whether open or suspected. They are popped into prison, and it is a curious potat how many die of cholera before they come to trial.

ONE OUT OF 13,000! In the great .Mutiny nearly nil the native regiments, except the Sikhs, proved disloyal. The rising was, indeed, a mutiny, and not an insurrection. At present 'our native troops are, as a whole, thoroughly loyal. The rising of to-day would not begin in the Army.

Finally, we are not likely to .see a new revolt unless some great disaster lii'sl overtakes the British arm'. It was the <•iil.nl disaster of 184-2 that was responsible for the .Mutiny of IS:>7. A large ■llrilish force was completely willed mil. Of IISM) troops and 1-2,(1011 en nip followers one onlv Dr. Bryilone —survived to tell the'tab'. Unless something of the kind occurs again, it is not likely that the smoulder of Indian discontent ■will break into the open Maze of revolt.