WHEN YOU’RE FIVE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 143, 2 June 1936, Page 11

WHEN YOU’RE FIVE

They’ve buttoned up my gaiters, And my gloves are fastened, too And I’m feeling rarver frightened, ’Cos I’m going to the Zoo. My daddy says it’s jolly, And my mummy says it’s fun, But s’posing that the elephant Should think I was a bun 1 My legs are queer and trembly, But 1 mustn’t let them see, ’Cos it’s silly to bo frightened When you’re nearly five, like me.

Dear Kiwis,—-Many of you write and tell me about the animals which you sec at Cornwall Park, and when you go holidaying to a larger city, where there is a Zoo, you love to visit it and see and learn about the strange animals of other countries. Until the middle of last century there were very few zoos, but different people who could afford such a luxury, or who wero in touch with people from other countries and received presents of animals from their friends, kept a few strange creatures in their own parks. In some instances there Were superstitions attached to them, such as to the great white owls of Arundel Castle, which were kept in a tower, being stopped from flying by netting stretched over the top cf the tower. This was done because of a belief that when there were no owls round Arundel Castle some great misfortune was likely to overtake the owner—the Duke of Norfolk. The owls have been done away with for many years now, in spite of the old superstition. But it was in the shape of troublesome presents that most of these private zoos were formed. When a king or great man received such a present

as a lion, and did not like, to offend tho givef, he had to find somewhere to keep it. and he had to make a home for it, and thus a zoo would begin. A foreign visitor to England in 1814 told of a strange sijdit caused, as he said, by the queer ideas of the English about foreign animals. I f attended a garden party given by -he Duke of Devonshire and, to his great —and natural—surprise, he suddenly saw, on the opposite side of a stream, three giraffes feeding amofig the trees. Suddenly one of them took a fancy to join the visitors across the water. Somewhat alarmed they wondered at the strange fancy that kept these longnecked creatures in his home grounds, and were pleased to see a keeper cross the little stream and capture the trespasser. It caine out then that it was not the giraffe’s home. They had been hired for the afternoon from a circus to interest the visitors at the garden party. Before tho real zoo came into being, many people had quite big collections of animals. Many inns had them, and when they were not the property of the inkoeper, he often hired them to give interest to tho people staying there. Some men had animals that they led about the country, and showed hi tho various towns they passed through. Thus in the time of Queen Anne leopards, dromedaries, tigers, porcupines, monkeys, peccaries, lions, panthers, and jackals Were shown at various inns In London. All this was a poor substitute for the zoo as we visit it to-day, but it gave the people of England some slight knowledge of the animals of other lands. Next time you visit the zoo you will be able to allow your thoughts to wander to those very early days. Even given the comparatively kind treatment which is theirs to-day, I always feel that there is cruelty in the keeping of zoo animals, and the sight of them taken from the freedom of their environment, brought to an unsuitable climate, and kept in a restricted space is saddening. This week’s essays are above the average, and some of those written by my smallest Kiwis have given me great pleasure. We welcome three new Kiwis from Nuhaka. They are Dorothy, Cynthia, and Bertie Tucker. With love to all my girls and boys. CHIEF KIWI.