DEAR STRAWBERRIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19187, 28 November 1925, Page 13

DEAR STRAWBERRIES.

BATTLE WITH THE BIRDS. SHOT ANNOYS A NEIGHBOUR. HOT WORDS EXCHANGED. Tho amateur gardener's ceaseless battle with small birds formed the motif of a case with an amusing side which was board before Mr. T. E. Maunsell, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court in Blenheim this week. John Dobson pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm within tho precincts of the borough. He explained that ho was the proud possessor of a strawberry bed, but the small birds got more of the strawberries than he did, although he had protected the crop with wire netting. " I then conceived the idea," he continued, "of shooting one of them and setting it up on the wire as a scarecrow—as a sort of warning to the others. (Laughter). Tfhat is the cause of ail tho trouble." Tho defendant added that taking into account the cost of wire netting and so on, he had come to the conclusion that it was cheaper in the long run to buy strawberries from the greengrocer than to try to grow them-himself. The defendant exhibited a cartridge similar to tho one he had used against the birds, and said it contained so small a charge that it could not do anyone much harm. He added that in firing the gun he had stood on the fence and fired down to avoid the risk of accident. Seargeant Whitehouse said some of the pellets from the cartridge had ricochctted against the wiro and rattled round a neighbour in an adjoining garden. The defendant said he thought some of the pellets had struck his neighbour's roof. " Anyway," ho continued, my neighbour made a big fuss about it, and I am afraid I was rather rude to him and so he complained to tho police." The Magistrate: Oh, it is a case of the neighbour laying the information ? He thought, the case would be met by ordering tho defendant to pay costs (7s). " I don't know how many strawberries you can buy for tl.ut," concluded Mr. Maunsell, smilingly.