CIRCUS AS A NOVELTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21049, 7 December 1931, Page 6

CIRCUS AS A NOVELTY.

MENAGERIE AT NAIROBI. NEAR GREAT CoAME RESERVE. [from our own correspondent.] * CAPETOWN. Oct. 23. Even in Kenya Colony, which consti. tutes the world's largest game reserve, there are many people who have never seen a lion or an elephant, so that the arrival of a circus from South Africa aroused considerable interest. The procession through the town of Nairobi created a record traffic block, and the police were quite unable to cope with the thousands of natives who swarmed into the roadway talking excitedly about the animals, which they regard ordinarily as a source of danger to life and property. The circus pitched its tents on a large common, almost in the centre* of the city, and did a roaring business.. Incidentally, it aroused the interest of wild animals in the vicinity of Nairobi. Lion and zebra, driven nearer the town because of the continued drought, coupled with the fact that the locusts have left very little grazing for the zebra, were attracted by the sounds of their species in captivity. One night a wild lion was seen prowling round the tents long after the circus performance had finished. On two or three occasions people leaving the tents at the close of the entertainment weri> badly bitten by a wild monkey and had to receive attention in hospital.