CONVERSION OF VANDALS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21573, 8 February 1940, Page 4

CONVERSION OF VANDALS

A SCHOOLMASTER’S SUCCESS A school teacher resident in Taranaki has given the FordSt and Bird Protection Society a very pledsant report of his success in the conversion of young vandals into enthusiastic birdprotectors. “By chance, one day,” the teacher says, “I saw some of my boys swinging hestliilg birds by the head until they were decapitated. When I questioned them about this cruelty they replied that their father had told them that birds were no good. I took 12 of the worst offenders and made them members of the Forest arid feird Protection Society so that they vzould receive the Society’s quarterly magazine. The boys proved to be keen, intelligent readers. The result now is that those lads are the main force in the protection of birds in the district. They are a very Vigilant and a very active little band.”

The president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society (Captain E. V. Sanderson) expresses a hope that many other schools will follow’ the example of the Taranaki school and send along the names and subscriptions of ten or more pupils. The Society will then do its full share by issuing to each pupil quarterly for one year their magazine “Forest and Bird” which is printed at just double , the cost of the subscription. The North Auckland Forest Society has already given an excellent lead by paying the subscriptions for 420 school children of the district as members of the Forest and Bird Protection Society (Box 631, Wellington) .