A SORT OF ZOO

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 8

A SORT OF ZOO

STOCK FOR PAPEETE

HORSES, RABBITS, AND BIRDS

Strawberry finches, rabbits, hares, household fowls, and horses form part of the "cargo," which Mr. \V. M. Reid, a Sydney exporter, is'taking with him to Papeete oil the Makura. The rabbits and hares, Mr. Reid explained to a, "Post" reporter today upon, the arrival of the Makura from Sydney, were required for breeding purposes with the object of keeping down the vegetation in the island plantations, where the growth was about a foot a month. He did Bot*think, however, that the rabbits would breed in sufficient numbers in the hotter climate to do all that was* expected of them. They were of the common type, and so far nineteen of the original twenty-four had survived the sea journey. Mr. Ecid said. that the' strawberry finches were going to a Mr. Guild, an American resident of Papeete, whose wife held the world's record for a marlin swordfish caught by a woman. The weight of the fish was 8601b, and it was landed at Russell, in the Bay of Is,lands. Mr. Guild used the finches for breeding purposes, and then liberated them. He had already had a number, of painted finches seat to him, and another batch would be forwarded to Papeete in September. It was diffi; cult to obtain a permit for the export of painted finches, said Mr. Beid, but it had been done by offering the Sydney Zoo authorities a quid pro quo in the way of rare specimens from the Islands. Mr. Beid is taking to Papeete the Wo-year-old pacing colt Walla Haere, son of Walla Walla, who • recently broke the Australian and New Zealand mile trotting records, and a rising six-year-old gelding named Crowdel, who has won a number of races in New South Wales and Victoria.' "The race meetings in Tahiti are works of art." he saicl. "They rido without stirrups and at catch-weights, and the meetings are real comedy shows. I had the good fortune to send a horse over that won the big race there, and they think I am the only one who can pick a horse. I hope they go on thinking it." ' Mr. Reid retired from the drapery business nearly twenty years ago, and he and Mrs. Keid made a leisurely tour of the world, visiting practically every country except Russia and South America. Eighteen months ago Mr. Beid became, interested in the export 1 busiuess; since then he has shipped many unusual cargoes, ranging, in ' actual fact, from pigs to procious 1 stones. He has even been asked-to procure such widely varying articlos as household needles and ships' anchors.