John Boyd and the first zoo

Very few people in New Zealand would have seen a lion or tiger in 1909 when John James Boyd opened New Zealand’s first zoo.
It should have been a roaring success with people flocking to see the exotic animals.
He had a lion and lioness, a tigress, and breeding pairs of bears and black buck antelopes, together with four macaws, two vultures and two demoiselle cranes which he had bought from a German zoo.
But he had built the zoo in Upper Aramoho in Whanganui.
After poor attendance John decided to move the zoo. And he set it up again in suburban Onehunga in Auckland.
He bought 6½ acres of land near the corner of Symonds Street and Trafalgar Street and on July 6 1911, a newspaper showed photos of the construction of cages and houses.
John also wanted to expand and applied for a licence to import more animals.
He had to meet a number of government regulations for health regulations and began bringing in more animals, like a pair of leopards.
John also included animals from Australia, like wallabies and kangaroos.
And it worked. People poured into the zoo for several years.
But then the complaints from nearby residents began. Smell, noise and hygiene were a problem and they started a petition to close it.
The Onehunga Borough Council began looking into it and considered how to close it down. So John ran for election. And in a twist, his fellow councillors endorsed him for mayor.
Opponents attacked him for abusing his public power and when he was found to have breached the Municipal Corporations Act, he stepped down.
The zoo continued briefly until two lions escaped on two different occasions, one managing to run about Queen St terrifying people.
So John took his animals on tour, around southern Auckland and Waikato.
He ended up being prosecuted for animal cruelty and the zoo finally closed in 1922.
Some of his animals were sold to private buyers and the rest became the basis of the new Auckland zoo.
John had been born in Yorkshire, England, and came to New Zealand in 1876. A builder by trade, he built a lot of cottages in what is now Kilbirnie in Wellington.
He went into the zoo trade once he had retired.
After his zoo closed, John and his family, wife Ann and his children moved back to Wellington where he lived the rest of his life.
He died on January 19, 1928 at his home, called The Anchorage, in Kilbirnie, Wellington and is buried in Karori cemetery.
Photo by Hugo Herrara.​