BIRDS FOR ZOO

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 10

BIRDS FOR ZOO

CRITICISM OF DEPARTMENT

OFFICIAL REPLY

Referring to-day to tho statement made on Tuesday by Mr. E. M'Keen, M.P., in which the Department of Internal Affairs was charged with inconsistency in reference to the landing of birds consigned to the Wellington Zoo, the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle) said that Mr. M'Keen, if correctly reported, had not put the position in a fair light. Tho public might be led to assume that there were two consignments of birds and that in one caso a permit was granted and in the other refused. That was not the position. So far as the birds which wero allowed to land were concerned, the warrant had already been in existence, having been granted prior to the decision not to grant any further permits under the Animals Protection and Game Act for the importation of birds over a period of twelve months. The landing of those birds was' therefore in accordance with a permit already issued. In the case of the birds for which there was no permit a totally different position arose. In' March Mr. Langridge; the curator of the Zoo, applied for the necessary warrant for the importation of tfic birds, and he was advised of the decision not to grant any further permits. In spite of that, the birds were brought to the Dominion. Mr. Langridge had stated that the birds in question were free of psittacosis, but whether that was so or not the Minister was not able to say. The fact remained that according to information in possession of his Department it was possible for the disease to remain dormant in birds for some months.