CATS AND KITTENS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 183, 30 April 1940, Page 8

CATS AND KITTENS

Merry To-Do At Naval Base NOW UNDER CONTROL Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND. April 29. The joint efforts on Friday of the Navy. Army, wharf police, and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seem to have brought a serious kitten problem under control. The whole matter arose when soldiers on coastal defence fluty near tlie city, through the Press, asked for the gift of about eight kittens to deal with the growing number of mice in their quarters. The men's request had unexpected consequences. It was suggested that tlie kittens might be left in boxes at the Admiralty steps, where they would be picked up by a laiyjfib and taken to tlie defence point. The Navy says it spent most of Thursday ' and Wednesday finding crates of cats on the steps. But before a stop could be put. to the flood of kittens their numbers bad reached staggering proportions, one estimate of those in close confinement at Hie naval base being 129. This was quite apart front those many others whose delivery to anybody in uniform was bitterly resisted.

It was stated on Friday that a warship's cell was alive with cats:, that there are now more kittens at the base than mice ; that the Army on the North Shore at one stage mounted double guards to prevent kitten distributors, unlimited, from dropping crates of them over the fence: and that the wisest of Army officers was the one who first looked into a box consigned to him before hurriedly sending it back whence it had come and putting himself beyond further communication with the outside world. Nor is it any secret that the word kitten is no longer safe to use in certain quarters. Besieged With Offers.

Almost every Army officer with his name in the telephone book is said to have received offers of kittens for the soldiers. One old lady, it is stated, rang and said that she had a eat which site really treasured, but which, because site’ had been unable to assist in tlie country’s war effort, she would like to give the Army, provided that it continued to be called by the name to which it was accustomed. A crate of kittens was sent on Frith y to one of the Army’s country area offices. Another is reported to have found its way into an Army truck coming to the city. People telephoned to make sure that the soldiers actually had all Hie kittens they wanted.

It would appear that the Navy aud Army on the North Shore had a strenuous day. The Army, almost hysterically, refused to have anything to do with the kittens aud kittens which had gone to t'bc wrong place. It is even reported to have suggested that the Navy drown the surplus. As a result, the Navy, horrified at a suggestion which sailors think would bring bad luck, almost severed diplomatic relations. Meantime, the soldiers who began this disruption of tlie city’s war energies, appalled by the dozens of kittens sent down, to tlie wharf, appeared in the right quarter and explained how it had all started. The matter has now been placed on an official basis. End of Nightmare. As for the Navy, it has recovered from Wednesday’s nightmare, and is dealing with the situation nonchalantly. A lot of sailors, and some officers, too, have decided that they wanted a kitten at home, anyway, and the inmates of the cell are gradually being reduced in number. As for those which for various reasons might be left drinking a free issue of milk —whether it is the financial responsibility of the Army on tlie North Shore or the Navy has not yet been decided—they may also be expected to disappear from the spotlight of publicity into which they have been tin-own. Arrangements have been made for them also.

The part played by the wharf police was carried out with politeness but firm dispatch. Kittens needed more than a wharf pass to get near the Admiralty steps. But, just to make sure that nothing had gone awry, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals paid regular visits to the waterfront and saw that no kittens had been left unattended. The Railways Department also kept a wary eye open for mewing inward parcels. There the matter rests.