The sleepers are easily torn from their resting places and thrust into bags hung round the necks of the intruders.
Each bag, when filled, is lowered to the ground by means of twine, and is emptied and returned for more victims.
Hundreds of birds have been taken from the building, and no doubt other premises have proved happy hunting grounds for the young marauders, who find a ready sale for the birds, dead or alive.
They are, for the most part, taken alive.
The operations of the cliff-scalers, the plover and seagull egg-hunters of England (the New Zealand Times states), are nothing to the overnight activities of the expert young exploiters of the pigeons of Wellington's business quarters.
These lads do by night what others do by day.
They have seized hundreds of birds in this way, and can readily get a shilling each for them.
•It might have been supposed, in view of the strict regulations governing the granting of permission to New Zealanders to travel beyond the confines of the dominion (says the Christchurch News), that the unfaithful married man would have the greatest possible difficulty in clearing out.
A case which is alleged to have happened in Christchurch recently seems to show that very little real difficulty exists in the matter.
The alleged facts are that a certain man has left for Sydney with a woman not his wife, and has left behind his wife and three children (one an infant), and, apparently, has made no provision for their maintenance.
When the manager of the business in which the man was employed heard the wife's sad story, he wanted to know, naturally, how her husband had managed to get a passport to travel, and he was told that the secretary of the union to which the man belonged had been instrumental in getting the necessary document.
Whether the secretary of the union knew all the circumstances of the case is not known.
It is likely that more will be heard of the whole matter.
•The toll of the war has been felt heavily by a number of large English manufacturers, and probably by none more than Messrs Cadbury Bros (Ltd).
Up to some months ago no fewer than 850 men had left the firm's employ in connection with the war.
The firm is paying to the dependents of its employees allowances amounting in all to nearly £5000 per annum.
The principals are well known as members of the Society of Friends, and a recent notice posted in the works at Bournville explains their attitude towards recruiting.
Inter alia, the notice reads: - ‘‘We greatly respect those who feel it their duty to respond to the call for service in the army and navy, and have, without question, released all such from our employment. We believe that it is the duty of everyone in these critical times to give whole-hearted service for the nation. Such service may take many forms. Among them, we consider, may properly be included the maintenance of existing factories, and so helping the balance of trade, which is so vital to the country. All who were in our employment at the outbreak of the war we have undertaken to reinstate.'' - ODT, 28.1.1916.
