SAD SEA LION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4833, 14 April 1936, Page 4

SAD SEA LION

JOEY'S NEW HOME. Joey, the St. Clair sea lion, arrived at Wellington as a passenger on the steamer Waitaki. Within 45 minutes of the freighter berthing he was accommodated in his new quarters at the Newtown Zoo. Though, when first taken prisoner at Dunedin, he burst into tears, wept and moaned and steadfastly refused food during his voyage up the coast, and wept again on his arrival, he soon recovered his usual high spirits on stretching his flippers in the sea lion pond. Joey was asleep when the Waitaki tied up at Queen's Wharf at 10.30 a.m., says the "Dominion." Everything had been done to make him comfortable on board. His stout and roomy crate was floored with sand; a tarpaulin shaded him from the sun's heat, and a hose was connected up so that he could be given shower baths from time to time. Two or three rejected morsels of fish lay in a corner of his cell; at the other end he lay stretched out, dreaming, perhaps, of the windy beaches of St. Kilda and St. Clair. As soon as the tarpaulin was lifted Joey rolled over and sat up. It must have been a rude awakening of his dreams, for, as he glanced round at the stout boards, tears streamed down his face and dripped off his handsome moustaches as he hung his head.