H. S. StoJces—The Primley Zoo



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The office of Customs and Excise have also demanded the retrospec¬

tive payment of tax for a considerable period.


It is pertinent to ask whether a bench of magistrates who may not

themselves be naturalists is capable of deciding what is educational

in the realm of natural history, and how people at the offices of Customs

and Excise who have not seen the collection themselves or sent natural

history experts to view it on their behalf should know it to be an enter¬

tainment suitable to be taxed.


Surely such a case as this should be judged on its merits, and a law

which does not recognize this is a bad and silly law and should be

amended. If Mr. Whitley had formed his Zoo into a society, or resorted

to other subterfuges to circumvent the law, payment of the tax by the

Public might have been avoided, but this he absolutely refused to do,

maintaining that his collection was no less educational or more enter¬

taining if ran by himself instead of by a society. As to making a profit

out of it it is known that Mr. Whitley subsidizes it by many thousands

of pounds a year out of his own pocket, and also devotes every penny

paid by the Public in entrance fees to further extensions and fresh

series of living specimens.


Parenthetically it may be remarked that England is the only

country where Zoos are not subsidized by the state, so educational

in value are they considered to be.


As to its being an entertainment, no entertainment of any kind

is allowed ; there are no bands, games, elephant rides, or fixed feeding

times, and no creature is ever put where it can be seen by the Public

until it is in perfect condition and of definite educational value to those

who wish to learn. Why then is it more of an entertainment than

a Zoo run by a Society ? Will the office of Customs and Excise next

decide that agricultural shows, flower shows, museums, and any or

every kind of scientific gathering where entrance is charged is to be

taxed ? It behoves us as members of a scientific society and as members

of the General Public to see that they are not, and to agitate for the law

to be amended or to be applied in a sensible manner by knowledgeable

people. The Primley Zoo will only be re-opened if we lift up our voices

and continue to press the authorities till a tax, not on entertainment,

but on education, is removed.



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