The Circus Comes to Town

One of the highlights of the holidays, at least as far as the children were concerned, was the arrival in Gisborne of Bullen's Circus. Early on the morning of Friday, 17th January, a large crowd was to be found at the railway station (above), where much interest was shown in the elephants and the other exhibits to be seen on the railway wagons. The elephants quickly tidied up the spare grass round the railway yards, prompting a remark that the City Council might find a few of them handy in some of the suburban streets, but the one pictured below went a step too far. He tossed his trunk over the back fence of an Awapuni Road house and rooted off a couple of snout-fulls of the owner's precious grape vines.

In blazing heat, patrons queue for seats even before big top is properly erected.

Jumbo was constant source of interest to youngsters

And in horse-conscious Gisborne, circus horses were much potted

Young fry exhibit keen interest in circus wagons. It was curiosity like this which a few days later led to a boy being mauled by one of the circus bears at Napier, when he put his hand through a narrow ventilation vent at the top of a cage.

Previous article Issue contents Next article

The Gisborne Photo News

No 43 : February 6, 1958

The Circus Comes to Town