SHIPLOAD OF CATS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 69, 17 April 1909, Page 3

SHIPLOAD OF CATS.

QUEER CARGOES THAT HAVJi CROSSED THE OCEAN..

The other day a alii]) sailed from Humburg bound for Yokohama with one of ■the queerest cargoes ou record—five thousand tills ! Mire are a grunt nuisance in Japanese towns, and the harmless, necessary feline is conspicuous by her absence. Therefore, the live thousand are to lie distributed about the country to increase and multiply until the mice vanish. Possibly by that time the cats will be found to lie a greater nuisance than the mice. ' In some years of travel, the writer has known many queer cargoes lo lie. carried about the several seas. Perhaps the queerest was jmt atioai'd the s.s. Thomas Urooks, the first vi'sscl that Hew the Cuban (lag after Cuba became an independent Republic. It consisted of a little circus, the ''star" member of which was an elephant, and its destination was a British colony. ""* THE "DOMESTIC PET." The elephant was not a very big one, but the steamship was particularly small. When he was induced, after much trouble, to descend into No. 1 hold, they found they couldn't put the hatches on, for his head and back came above the deck level, and his trunk waved to and fro, taking a friendly interest in the legs of passing sailor-men. If lie threw his weight to one si{le or the other, the ship look an alarming list to starboard or to port. However, the old boat waddled safely across a hundred miles of the peaceful Caribbean, and got to port. Then the real trouble began. The colony has a very elaborate Customs tarilf, lint when the officials drew up the schedule v tlicy did not contemplate the arrival of elephants, "You must pay duty for iiiui as 'cattle on the hoof,'-' L .«id the landing waiter. " No," retorted the circus proprietor. "According to your scale of charges, he I may come in free under two headingscither as a 'domestic pet,' or as an I ' article intended for educational pur poses.'"

The elephant was put hi bond 111 a large warfhousc filler 'with casks of rum while the dispute was referred fr"m the landing waiter to the Collector-General, from, the Colleptor-Qeneval to tlio Colonial Secretary, from that official to the Governor, and then to the AttorneyGeneral, and his Excellency's Privy Council.

While all this was being done by telephone, the elephant amused himself by smashing those casks of rum and mopping up their contents. Becoming exhilarated, he proceeded to wreck the place; and a deputation of worried officials thVn besought the master to. do vyiiat he ljked villi the boast, so long as he took it out qf theiy way, VULTURES, BOOBY EGG.S, AND fIISBOPS. Tho Government of Haytl once sent a warship to Kingston, Jamucia, to fctcii a cargo consisting of twenty male and twenty female John Crow vultures, In a. spasm of reforming zeal, the black statesmen had decided to, establish a street-cleaning department for the town of Jacmel—which needed it badly. Human labour was too expensive ; but they had heard what good scavengers the Kingston John Crows were, so they sent to ask the Colonial Government, as a special favor, to catch a few for them. It was done and they were put aboard a ship especially chartered to carry an archbishop and sevtn bishops to the meetings of a synod. .Sailors think it is bad luck to haY& even, one parsOn, aboard, and tb,e fcclipgs .pf-'qur crew. wVn we cpiiteriiplatcd this cargo of shovel hats ah 4 gaitered legs, were o,f the gloomiest. And, as it turned, put, w;e had very bad weather. But GOO.OOO hooby eggs from the Pedro Cays, where the birds assemble in millions to lay them, proved an even worse cargo. We were taking them on a schooner to sell for. the negroes' consumption at various West Indian ports. A good many hundreds got broken aboard, and—well, they weren't exactly violets !