FOR IDLE HANDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 68, 29 September 1939, Page 4

FOR IDLE HANDS

PLENTY OF WORK AT POLICE STATION * ' The next few months will not the time to chose to commence a life of crime round Whakatane, and those who now indulge in riotous laving may find it as well to tread th e straight arid narrow path for a time, for there is a distressingly large amount of work to be done Pound the grounds oil] the new police station and residence, and the police may thus be expected to "crack down" on petty crime to get a supply of labour. The grounds will need to be dug thoroughly and there is well over a month's work in that alone. It is always thought to be one of the privileges of a police man's life that he can obtain a plentiful sup* ply of labour to till his garden, but the difficulty often is to get reliables help. So many prisoners seem to take the view that the State ought to keep them without any effort on their part that the position is not as simple as it seems. The police tell stories afl scoundrels who, when instructed to weed a garden, . pulled up all the vegetables and left the weeds untouched, and also of another miscreant who pull-' V eel up the young plants, nipped ofl? their roots, and replanted them, so that next day after his release they were found to be withered. Then there were the youths whor broke or hid alii the tools, not , to mention the gentleman with the Jpt placed sense of humour who stole the policeman's horse and rode *it down town.