The Star: April 22, 2021

The Star Thursday April 22 2021
12
NEWS
Possible serial
flasher seen
lurking in park
• By Devon Bolger
POLICE ARE investigating
a possible serial flasher near
Spencer Park.
Nik Croxson said she was on a
walk when she was approached
by a woman in a car.
“She stopped next to me to
warn me she had seen a naked
man and that I might want to
walk a different track,” Croxson
said.
“She was calling the police
while we spoke.
“She said she had been
walking a forest track near the
beach when she saw a man who
was naked and masturbating up
near the sand dunes.”
A police spokeswoman said
they received a report after the
man was spotted near Spencer
Park on Sunday.
“We spoke about there being
quite a few families and people
at the beach, given it was such
a warm day. That was quite
concerning. There was no phone
service where she saw him so she
had to head back to her car and
call the police,” Croxson said.
Police are asking anyone who
may have information about the
incident to call 105, quoting file
number 210418/5795.
-NZ Herald
• By Matt Slaughter
IT IS HOPED Canterbury
Museum’s redevelopment will
remove an elephant in the room
which has been held captive since
the 1960s.
In a cramped corner of one of
the museum’s storerooms is a
taxidermied elephant, weighing
in at about 540kg. But it is so big,
it has become stuck.
Canterbury Museum senior
curator of natural history Dr
Paul Scofield said the elephant
was first displayed in 1878 and
put in storage in the early 1960s.
Modifications to the storeroom
some years ago mean it can not
be moved without removing the
roof or the floor of the attic it is
in.
Said Scofield: “The museum’s
elephant has suffered greatly
from the ravages of time. It has
been in storage since the early
1960s. In the late 1960s, a family
of possums got into its storeroom
through a hole in the roof and
tore a hole in the elephant’s
straw-filled stomach to make
their nest.”
The February 22, 2011,
earthquake nearly destroyed the
elephant, but its frame has been
reinforced and it is awaiting
restoration.
It is hoped it will be once again
put on display if the museum’s
redevelopment proposal receives
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Tough tusk to move elephant
HUGE: Paul Scofield with the elephant which has been stuck in a Canterbury Museum
storage room since the 1960s.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
resource consent. The elephant
was brought to Christchurch by
museum founder Julius Haast,
who purchased its treated skin
with funds he made by selling
moa bones.
In 1877, Haast employed the
famed Austrian taxidermist
Andreas Reischek to mount the
elephant skin on a frame of iron,
wood and clay.
The museum is proposing a
$195 million redevelopment of
its Rolleston Ave site, needed to
protect its heritage buildings,
the 2.3 million objects in its
collection and upgrade its visitor
facilities.
The museum building is also
in dire need of repair.
Cracks in the structure mean
pests can get in, there is no air
conditioning or insulation and
the temperature and humidity
can not be controlled. The
building also leaks in places
when it rains.
The consultation period for
the redevelopment proposal has
closed. The city council will now
decide whether to grant resource
consent for the redevelopment
based on feedback from the
public. Additional funding also
needs to be secured before the
project goes ahead.