BUDDO AND WILD BEASTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 245, 5 March 1910, Page 4

BUDDO AND WILD BEASTS.

Certain very wisely promulgated regulations prohibit the importation of dangerous animals to the Dominion. As do ! rule, however, was " ever yet devised which did not admit of exception, so these particular regulations were intended to be, carried into effect with discretion. When Mr Boyd, a zoological expert, arranged to import a number oi valuable" animals for his interesting Zoo at Aramobo, he was about to render the Dominion a signal service. We say this advisedly, because the study of natural history is one of, the most important m the educational sphere. "The proper study of mankind," says Pope, "is man," but only by the more complete study of the entire organic kingdom, of which man forms but a unit, can this study be perfected. How better than by actual observation, such as is afforded by a zoo,' can the necessary knowledge be obtained ? Certainly not by means of books. Mr Boyd has several animals m Sydney, but has met with a rebuff from the New Zealand Government, which refuses to allow some of them to land here. The collection embraces leopards, pumas, cheetahs, foxes, polar bears, buflalos, and an elephant, an unquestionably valuable addition to a zoo of any country, m the world: With that inscrutable wisdom which does at times seize hold and take possession of the official jack-in-office, the Hon. David Buddo, M.P., Minister for Internal Affairs, has refused to permit the animals to be landed with the exception of the bears, the bufialos, and the elephant. This prohibition would perhaps be understandable were it Mr Boyd's intention to import these animals and let them loose m the Dominion) but of course, they would all he m cages, and under dne restraint, hence the allegation of danger resolves itself into a mere- myth. The carrying out of the prohibition would negative the..institution of a zoo under any conditions, and. would result m a farcical absurdity. To show, however, with how little discretion the regulations are being enforced, one need only, point out that while bears and buflalos are allowed to land, pumas and cheetahs are refused admission, thus displaying an utter ignorance of the dangerous proclivities of the respective animals. A puma., will seldom or never attack a human' being except when (as will any animal, even a domestic dog or cat) it is first attacked, m which case it naturally acts upon the defensive. A cheetah may be mischievous, but it can scraccly . be designated dangerous. A bear, however, is capable of proving as powerful an aggressor as any lion or tiger, and can exert prodigious strength, while few wild animals can »exceed m ferococrty the savagery of an infuriated buffalo. Mr Buddo, however, must be suffering m a manner similar to the learned judge who, while sentending to penal servitude for ten years a boy who had impeded the traffic with a whipping top, let oS with a caution a man who had skinned a horse alive, and then wondered' at the daily papers commenting on the eastern atrocities, whereas he was only reading an account of his own doings on the bench.