ZOO FINANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 150, 26 June 1940, Page 5

ZOO FINANCES.

ATTENDANCES INCREASE.

FEW DEATHS AMONG STOCK.

Attendancee at the Auckland Zoo during the year ended March 31 reached a total of 118,286, an increase of 1325 on the previous year. Due, however, to an. increased number of concessionaires and children there was a decrease of £26 in the gate receipts (£4482). In his annual report to the City Council I the curator, Lieutenant-Colonel E. R. Sawer, stated that overhead expenses amounted to £754, maintenance of park and gardens to £3576, and maintenance on the zoological collection to £4724. The curator contended that the debit balance of £242 between the gate receipts and tUe cost of maintaining the, collection represented the net cost to the council of an educational amenity. The greater part of the overhead expenses and the whole of the expenses for maintaining the park and gardens would otherwise, he stated, be chargeable to other municipal accounts. At the end of the financial year the total adult stock was 363 mammals, 528 birds and 32 reptiles. The first two classes showed an increase. During the year 39 mammals were born and 110 birds and eight reptiles were reared. Mortality »among the exhibits had reached a new low level in spite of the i cold and wet winter. Deaths among mammals represented 5.8 per cent, the previous lowest figure having tfeen 9 per cent in 1936-37. Xo deaths were attributed to tuberculosis, which in previous years had" takes a heavy toll.