10 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
vessels, taken Qut, and again put into the same 
vessel. 
The committees had been farces and subter- 
fuges to cover the ineptitude of the so-called 
shipping control. 
Goods were being dragged up and down 
the country for hundreds of miles, with docks 
and even ships available within a dozen miles. 
WASTED TIME AND LABOUR. 
Mr. Tillett stated that on one occasion he 
was sent for by the Shipping Controller, who 
complained that in some of the docks the men 
were not doing what he considered was their 
duty. He alleged that shipping was being held 
up, and dock traffic was congested. 
"We had a ready reply to that," said Mr. 
Tillett. "for in one of these very docks that he 
complained about there were two Government 
officials. One went along and ordered some 
hundreds of tons of cargo into a ship, and as 
soon as his back was turned another came along 
and ordered it out. (Laughter.) Then they 
both returned and ordered it back again." 
AN OFFICER'S ORDER. 
Mr. Tillett added that they had the amus- 
ing experience of seeing a young officer peer 
down the hold of a vessel, and, on seeing the 
tunnel which houses the shaft which drives the 
propeller, say, "Take that away. It takes up 
too much room." (Loud laughter.) 
Describing the manner in which the ton- 
nage of vessel was wasted by official muddling, 
he alleged that trips which should take nine of 
ten davs were taking five or six weeks. 
18,000 TONS OF BACON. 
Mr. E. Bevin (the Union's Organiser) de- 
clared that recently 18,000 tons of bacon were 
rotting in the docks. The Government's atten- 
tion was called to it, and instead of taking it 
over they sold it to a huge American combine 
— (cries of "Shame") — who immediately put it 
into cold storage. The Government defended 
themselves by saying that they had not got the 
cold storage. 
"The trouble (said the speaker) is the ap- 
pointment of the head of a huge food combine 
to control the people's food. The appointment 
of Lord Devonport is an insult to democracy." 
LOCOMOTIVES THROWN OVERBOARD. 
Another delegate said that a ship was sent 
to sea with the hold packed full of naval stores, 
on the top of which were placed railway engines. 
When the ship got to sea the naval people 
wanted the stores, and so the ship was sent 
back to port, where it happened that at the 
particular dock it reached there was no crane 
which could shift the engines. The ship re- 
turned to sea, and the naval people had the 
engines flung overboard. 
Mr. Bevin declared that thousands of tons 
of food which could have been carried to this 
country were not carried because the ships were 
engaged in taking only 150' horses across the 
water. 
— i — !$- 
THE CALCUTTA ZOO IN THE 
NINETIES. 
By Frank Finn, B.A., F.Z.S. 
Confined, Gibbons did not last long in Cal- 
cutta, neither did Orangs; the cages needed to be 
larger, and here it is to be observed that an arrival 
which is delicate here, is delicate also in its own 
home, as I saw with several tropical Asiatic birds 
and beasts. The difficulty is usually temperment 
or digestion rather than climate, and in hot as 
well as cold climates the more space can be given 
the better as a rule are the results. 
We seldom had Elephants and then only 
young ones destined to go elsewhere, the Elephant 
being so well known that he did not justify the 
large expense, but we had Rhinoceroses, the first 
Rhinoceros really bred in captivity — as opposed 
to any that may have been born of a female preg- 
nant when captured, having been bred in this 
garden. 
The rhino enclosures were very fine, one sur- 
rounded by a wall, with plenty of grass and a 
pond as big as the three-island pond at the zoo 
inside it, and the other with an iron post and rail 
fence extending at the bottom into the garden 
lake. The last,. however, was done away with to 
build a ponderous new house for small carnivores, 
a scheme I strongly opposed, but without avail; 
committees have an incurable passion for build- 
ing, and I an obstinate objection to " improve- 
ments" that do not demonstrably make for more 
comfort for man and beast. Giraffes and Hippos 
there were none in my time, though both have been 
represented, and I fancy have been since I left. 
Antelopes and Deer were few in species, but shown 
in fine large grass paddocks; in one, containing 
a pond, a pair of Sarus Cranes lived along with 
the Sambur, and when visitors came with food 
it was curious to see the male crane peck the big 
stag in the face and make him stand back. I 
have seen this stag let a crow take a much greater 
liberty — clean out his eye glands of the secretion, 
which the bird, whose tastes are peculiarly nasty, 
