A £l0,000 CLAIM

Southland Times, Issue 19517, 17 May 1922, Page 2

A £l0,000 CLAIM

ZOO OWNER AND BOROUGH COUNCIL. J. J. BOYD TO PETITION PARLIAMENT. Visiting Wellington at present is Mr J. J. Boyd, a well-known property-owner here, and proprietor of the “Royal Oak” Zoological Gardens at Onehunga, Auckland. Mr Boyd informed a Dominion reporter that he had instructed his solicitor to petition Parliament at the corning session for £lO,OOO compensation, due to him, he alleges, for the loss he has sustained through interference with, the conduct of his Zoo at Onehunga, caused by an arbitrary by-law of the Onehunga Borough Council, which has been given statutory backing. This by-law, Mr Boyd explains, enacted that he should only be allowed to keep his lions, tigers, and leopards in the Zoo for five days out of the seven in each week. Although he had protested against the injustice of such a bylaw, which the Government had supported by passing an Act, he had, at great expense, to see that several cages of his animals were beyond the confines of the borough for at least two days out of every seven. To do this he had arranged little tours into the country, and had given exhibitions of trained lions, and shown the other animals at a minimum price of admission, viz., fid. It was not his ambition to make money out of the show. On the contrary, he had lost a good deal. That was just as the Borough Council intended, as the effect of the by-law was, he urged, to break up and get rid of the Zoo altogether. Mr Boyd states that it was eleven years last February since he established his Zoo in Onehunga. As a man of means he did not set about that undertaking with mercenary motives, but simply as a hobby, and every penny taken at the Zoo had been put back into it (after ordinary expenses were paid) so as to make it the more interesting and educative from a zoological point of view. Before selecting the Onehunga site, he inspected others. After having made his decision he aproached the Borough Council for permission to erect a Zoo, and submitted plans showing how it was intended to house the animals, naming them all on cage plan. The Borough Council considered the plans, and suggested certain work, notably asphalting the ground beneath the cages, etc., which cost an extra £lOO, and then approved the plans. By that action Mr Boyd contends that the local body approved the scheme. In due course the Zoo was provided with rare animals from all parts of the world, purchased at considerable cost, and the “Royal Oak” Zoo became one of the show places of Auckland. In the course of time a few neighbours complained about being disturbed by the roaring of the lions, and the Borough Council was aproached about the matter. Almost ever since then he had been compelled to fight the local authority, which had done its utmost to get him out, but he had fought them year in and out, at a cost of something like £2OOO. That all Onehunga was not engaged in this Zoo vendetta, Mr Boyd sought to prove by saying that some five years ago he was returned as Mayor of the borough. He continued to build up the Zoo, and from the animals he had imported other zoological gardens in the country had benefited.

Then came what Mr Boyd describes as the “Back-door Act,” which gave statutory endorsement to the Borough Council's five days a week by-law, which made Mr Boyd take to the road for the other two days of the week. He had motor cages provided, ancl he and his son went out to the backblocks. through the Waikato, and elsewhere, giving shows at a pittance, in order to comply with the by-law he deems so arbitrary. It proved to be a losing proposition. Mr Boyd says he did not worry at all about that, but at 72 a man did not want to be worried with such an undertaking.” So he sought legal advice, and as the result a petition for £lO,OOO compensation is to be made to Parliament during the coming session. “If that is not successful,” says Mr Boyd, “I will take it to the Supreme Court, and to the Privy Council, if need be.”