LIONS LOOSE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20421, 16 December 1931, Page 15

LIONS LOOSE.

;"■ . j : EXCITING THREE HOURS. ' . ■ —— . i 1 ■ 1 A TRAFFIC BLOCK. i 1 '..''l t 1 1 OUR OW* CORRISrOHDEKT.) 1 - ( SYDNEY, December 3. A lion and lioness which escaped ...i from Perry Bros. Circus caravan on j •" the main road near Mansfield, in Vic- j toria, terrorised cattle in adjoining i ® fields, Jield up the local show day ■ traffic, rind provided residents and others with an exciting hunt «that f ; :> lasted for more "than three hours. Peter was the liori, and Queenie was • the lioness, and they were travelling e in a cage lashed to a motor-truck at :. the rear of the circus caravan. .When s the edge lurched over a bump in the • road" Peter was thrown' against the ■ door and it burst open. Both Peter i. and Queenie fell out, but the driver 1 was unaware what had happened, and as the motor-truck jolted along the ■* lion and the lioness followed for nearly • a mile. Then a Bonnie Doon farmer, y on his way to "the Mansfield Show, came !• upon the beasts just as he rounded a ' bend in the road, and he received sucn , a shock that he almost ran his car '. into a ditch at the side of the road. The Bonnie Doon man" quickly re- " covered and glad, "no doubt, *o get away from the scene, rushed to the caravan and reported what he had seen. Great excitement at once prevailed. The driver of the caravan 1 ■ , ' i ■ - ■ ■

' , •' •' . W *, IT went back»for a mile Ttofc could/find. no trace of the beasts.. Then someone '• t noticed' that the - cattle in ; a > field werp more lively than ijes normally the case. They had seasons to be.' The lion and hi$ r mite s> v®*"® prowling up and down outside. a b^rbeo-, wire fence, and the cattle realise that only-this fence 'WM .be- ; tween them and death. ,•. .J,J The beasts quickly the crowd came in webfe so ~ decided- to inform the local cowwbwHe seized his gun and , carloads of local residents ■"w -assist him in the search. When they ar-. > \ rived somewhere near the scene theyfound that all traflio for four miles ha<l : - -- been blocked; The army had to pro--. . ceed on foot.. It looked more lfke * \ picnic thait a lion hunt. It was not long before the animals were located,, and it required some effort on the, part - of the proprietor and the constable to prevent all and sundry from firing-. The circus cage was brought back, and 1 by some means or other, and greatly to the disappointment of the big. gam®, hunters, Peter was coaxed inside. Queenie was more cunning and elufjea capture time and again/ Mounting one of- the cars one of the circus men managed to lasso Queenie, but Queenie quickly chewed through the rope ana then regained her liberty. She was, however, trapped by a leg/ W thrown into the cage. This she Simply could not resist—and the' to a big house at Mansfield that njgW-