Zoo manager quits

Press, 9 July 1979, Page 4

Zoo manager quits

PA Wellington I Wellington Zoo's manager (Mr Konrad Kuiper) went on annual leave immediately after walking out of a Wellington City Council reserves committee meeting at which he gave notice of his resignation. I In what the Mayor of Wellington (Mr E. M. C. Fowler) later described as an unpieIcedented move, Mr Kuiper brought forward his retirement date to the end of I December after alleging that the committee had censored his annual report on the zoo I for the year to March 31. I Mr Kuiper said he did not i "want to be round" in case I the committee tried the same I thing next year. I According to the committee's chairman (Cr K. Spry), the censorship dispute arose over a single phrase in Mr Kuipers report which the committee considered had political overtones. Cr Spry said the wording of Mr Kuiper’s report was 'along the lines of, “We believe that the Wellington Zoo is doing a good job in helping people and the world to understand the plight of animals in the so-called fret world.” The committee took objection to the phrase “so-called free world.”