MUSEUM OF NATURE

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 6

MUSEUM OF NATURE

The Indian Elephant

(Contributed by the Canterbury Museum) Two versions of how the Canterbury Museum acquired its elephant have persisted. Both are listel in Johannes C. Anderson’s book “Old Christchurch,” published in 1949, and not now readily available. Andersen makes one very succinct observation: “Strange stories spring from very small seed; but who sows the seed?” This is definitely true of the first version. Andersen says that he was told as a boy that the elephant’s name was Jumbo. What elephant’s name isn’t? It had belonged to a travelling circus performing in Christchurch, and had met its death through eating a box of matches taken from its keeper’s pocket Andersen is sceptical of that story, especially after he went to live in Wellington and heard another version. This was told to him by Sir Frederick Chapman, a man noted for his integrity and scholarship. Sir Frederick told him he had known that particular elephant in Paris. The animal was in the zoological gardens when he was at school there in 1865. During the siege of Paris in 1870, when food became scarce the poor old elephant was called on to meet the shortage, but his skin was kept. In 1874, the French scientist, H. Filhol, had been sent with a French expedition to observe the transit of Venus at St Paul and Campbell Islands and he visited New Zealand immediately afterwards. He came, authorised by the French, to exchange specimens; and among other things he had to offer was the skin of the elephant Filhol spoke English very badly, so was glad to stay with the Chapmans; then living in Dunedin, where he could speak French; and Sir Frederick used to go out with him in the evenings, visiting provision shops of various

kinds where he bought New Zealand fish, and ducks as specimens to take away with him. Having had much kindness in Dunedin from F. W. Hutton, then curator of the Otago' Museum, Filhol offered him the skin of the elephant in question. But Hutton said it was too big an animal. They could not set it up and look after it properly;, but he would like a cave-bear if one were available. A cave-bear was sent to Dunedin in due course.

Filhol had also received many favours from Julius Haast, then curator of the Canterbury Museum; and as he told Sir Frederick Chapman he would offer the skin to Haast, because, he said; “il aime les grosses betes” —“he likes the large creatures.” (An opinion many would still agree with). Haast accepted it, and on Filhol returning to Paris the skin was sent out in 1875 to Canterbury. Now as regards the box of matches, there may be an explanation. There is an elephant in the Otago Museum, but it is only a baby compared with the one ip the Canterbury Museum, and this elephant belonged to a travelling circus and died in the 1860 s on the Blue Skin Road, but whether through eating matches or eating tutu Sir Frederick did not know; but he thought tutu the more likely. Confirmation of this appears in Acland’s “Early Canter-

bury Runs" where he states: “About 1867 the township of Waimate began to take shape. Dan Brown, the first butcher, once showed a novelty in the way of meat A travelling showman had the bad luck to get his elephant ‘tooted’ near Waitaki, and Brown cut off the trunk and displayed it in his shop. The rest of the elephant was buried in the riverbed and Tom Teschemaker, of Otaio, used to say that when the river, hundreds of years hence, exposes the bones, the geologists will prove that elephants once roamed over the Waitaki Plains. I have heard since, however, that the bones were dug up and sold to a musuem.” Evidently some of its meat was sold at Waimate.

There must still be a certain amount of conjecture as to the origin of the elephant in the Canterbury Museum, but if one is asked to express a firm opinion, then the odds must surely be with the story as told by Sir Frederick Chapman, a man whose scientific background and writings give that degree of authenticity to the story that is lacking in the match-box theory. However, if any of the readers can provide further documentary proof, the Canterbury Museum will be pleased to receive it—J.H.J. The photograph shows the Indian elephant in its present setting in the Hall of Biology at the Canterbury Museum.