HIPPO’S LONG TREK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20789, 7 August 1929, Page 6

HIPPO’S LONG TREK.

A 200-MILE JOURNEt PREFERS CIVILISATION. TO NATURAL HAUNTS. A baby liippp. on the hike in the thicklypopulated areas of Natal is, causing consternation in South Africa to-day. He is the subject of a witch doctor’s'prophecy, be has invaded villages and the town of Durban (117,000 inhabitants), and has bpen the subject of warm controversy among Europeans, Indians, and negroes (writes A. L. Payne, in the Sydney Morning Herald). The blacks will hear of no' persecution of the animal owing to a supetstitition, while there is a _ section of the white population which is desirous of shooting “ Hubert," as the hippo, has been affectionately nick-named. All this excitement-has been caused by a sudden whim pf Hubert to join the holiday rush to Durban—a big seaside' resort —-and desert his haunts-in the wilds of Zululand. At the beginning of the new year this whim led him to start on a lonely 200-mile trek to Durban, which proved uneventful but for a collision with a motor lorry at night and a flight from a band of. labourers oh a sugar plantation, where he ate and trampled underfoot hair an acre of cane for breakfast. Great adventures befell him on his arrival on the outskirts of Durban. Hubert was happily wallowing in a dam, when natives threw stones and slicks at him. An old witch doctor, coming suddenly on the scene, sprang angrily among them. , Stop! Stop!” he-cried- "Pools! Do you» not know that whoever hits this animal bad luck will descend upon him." Some of the younger natives scoffed at this superstition and ignored, the warning. “ I have told you,” shouted the witch doctor, misfortune will befall you who stone him. Even graver things might happen to them, said the witch doctor, as he walked away, muttering to himself. waß . at 8 »clock. At 8.20 three « e r natl , ves concerned were killed by a 'tall of rock. This tragic incident caused Hubert to be regarded ■ with awe. The Indians, too, held the animal in respecttreated, him with every courtesy, and announced their willingness to feed him. VISIT TO DURBAN-

Hubert up to this juncture Was looked on by Europeans in Durban as an interand- baby..' He. was hundreds of miles from his play-mates al ? d ln airy thicklypopulated country no-gMM., Wing some small buck, , So ,^ llcll v . the hippo reached 1 the * 8 P urba , n a cry went up in the piess to defitrosMhe-brute Evidently had', had a tiresome - hike from Zululand, and he wanted to cl - v J hßatl - on wa T s like. So one nfSr n 6 P a!d , a v iSlt to the' city shortly ° and, to the astonishment. 1 to their hotels tear the beach, Hubert was se£n standing oh the tramway line outside . the bar of a four-stoned hotel. ' . .^SJ ra , s first’seen by a rickshaw, puller, h« heels. The soon spread that Hubert had come to town, u ’ te a congregation of motor cars ' gathered pear the spot. Hubert stood his stolidly and. stoically, until the motorists began to turn their headlights . T his was too muchfor his nefves ’ a ? d Promptly -beat a Hm wji ‘t party , of policemen pursued n ftinn nl he S found deep in contemy m a 6olf cour fs pear the eleventh pole. (The rumour that his real obiectlv®. was. the hole was dlsthe>r«?-) Evidently Hubert dii m^lng u ?f !? kln ? up ? olf > a s he was so deep m his thoughts that the police a few yards until their bright

FINDS A RIVER HAUNT. _Thi3 i! adventure was too much for J etlr » n «. disposition and he fled Wni 1 ' 8 - haU ? t !v 3n '. a nver outside the boundaries of the city. It was at 'this retreat that Hubert stayed for two months, and it was while there that the rumour arose casting a doubt oh his masculinity and_ saddling him with an offspring, despite the fact that he is still only a youngster. ■) > . HsVwT ? { t er sa X a gi?g a man that Hubert lost favour m the public eye, and suggestions wcrfe made to have him shot J* T> a ? also suggested that Hubert might be driven to his haunts in i while a museum authority hoped that the animal would go home of his own accord, not hiking overland, but travelling up the coast ana ewimming the distance in easy stages. This latter hope has not been realised, and now the province of Natal is saddled with the responsibility of a wandcingTiippo. that may seriously, hurt someone, ~ Up to the present the question has been what will happen to Hubert? An on T aß made ky a local landowner of to anyone prepared to capture and -hand over the hippo, to him. The landowner was prepared to house the hippo. ?“u‘ 8 but so far no one baa undertaken the work of capturing the animal The person who offered the £IOO was oip- rl £l y Tr n< ? lgI l aut , at treatment meted Hu ] ,ert » who has been continually b?s^s« Dtl T? rodded -witt sticks during fetin’ fi WaS a i a r^ u,t of ■ teasing that Hubert savaged a European. The ™nH t! £ ?nt he received was,more than his f,°? d h JP po - nature could stand. One other snanL^ 6 r w- o^ected was being stand if - n 3 1S , Bh y dl . s POsition ’ could n'ot stand it. and when being photographed hv 4 eeide 3 ta put fi» loot doiyn. Imrching forward, he charged the policeman and brought him to earth, aft™ wards clearing into, thick bush.

STILL AX LARGE. . ■if ‘j?* ° f ■T ri^ns ?« bert - , ZOQ 1W made an offer to DnrV.i!! in ’ i!° he sta J 6 in a river near JJurban, where crowds go to watch him enjoymg his swims. He played a prank a „> c - a L householder recently, when he stood outside this man’s tront gate and would not; budge. The man, after hesitating, made a dash for ins gate and just managed to get in his face aDd 6lam the gate in hippo’s p is J; lle r fi £ Bt , hi PPo- to be seen f, th | n Coooty of Durban for something like 30 years- Towards the end of the last century several hippos, a Vf 9 * m . l j es the city, hut as tney did considerable damage they were destroyed. They used to wallow, in geo Cow Lake, and strangely enough, young Hubert appears to have made this lake bis headquarters. He is tame and only attacks people when teased. In fact, he i 9 the pet of the neighbourhood, --