HATES CAMERAS!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 17

HATES CAMERAS!

FERDINAND THE FROG.

A TRICK THAT WORKED.

WHITER GARDEN'S AUTOCRAT,

The story of Ferdinand, the fro? at the Winter Gardens, is the tale of an epic battle with a photographer. Ferdinand is the sole occupier and autocrat of the circular moat gracing the tropical house at the Auckland Domain. He hate«> his kind and detests

photographers. Now, a Press photographer is an awkward fellow to cross. The edict had gone out that Ferdinand's ugly physiognomy was to grace the "Star." Ferdinand had other ideas, and though he w a« tricked by a low device, he succeeded in ruining the mental peace of the photographer. Ferdinand is a curious little bloke. The only people lie tolerates are gardeners; but even gardeners are not permitted to take liberties. He is green and yellow and about three inches long, with a hop like a kangaroo and a leering eye. An encyclopaedia which should know better, calls him a Rana, and adds rather stupidly that "many .tif the-Rana genus utter loud no tag, in. the tpsfagtime." . Ferdinand is one of the Parnell Kanas, and when he "utters loud notes" the aspidistras sway gently in the breeze and visitors atuff their fingers in their ears.

Ferdinand has a way with photographers. He knows how to make them mad; and a mad photographer is a dreadful sight. He lay gently swaying on a banana leaf. The light was perfect, the background ideal. Out came the camera, and off scaled' Ferdinand to the topmost leaf of the highest palm in the house. And after him went the photographer, inspiring in the murky air. For half an hour the cliase went on. At the end Ferdinand hopped into his little pond, winked a wary eye, and slid below the surface. The sitting was over.

Away went the photographer, and in the dark hole where photographer* lurk | he made, at great cost and with sinister patience, a telescopic lens. He attached this to the camera, hired a taxi, and returned to do one of two things: 1, photograph Ferdinand; 2, break Ferdinand's supercilious neck. There wa« an odd hope that he do lioth. So it happened that while Ferdinand licked hw chops after a feed of flies, or whatever it is that the Rana« eat, this crafty photographer set up the implements of his trade at a distant spot, pressed th© button and silently stole away. Ferdinand'#* neck is still intact. He roams hi* tropical HBjrdom, leaping from a South American orchid to a Fijian hybiscus; climbing to the top of an Australian banana palm and swooping like a trapeee artist to spoil the symmetry of a cloud of delicate begonia blooms.

He thinks he has done the photo grapher in the eye; but the photo grapher knows better.