The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1890 Fruit Stealing

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 95, 4 February 1890, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1890 Fruit Stealing

One of the most demoralising influences in the present social training of young people is the tacit encoui*age« uieut given to gardeu and orchard robbing. This kind of petty thieving is partly caused by the pernicious iufluence of some story book's for young peoplo, which depict as young heroes the foremost and most ad yen turous lads who steal a pocketful of apples ; and, partly by our laws which provide no. adequate punishment for checking the embryo thief from becoming an accomplished felon. There are few fruit-growers, whether amateur gardeners or professional 4jc»rti culturalists, who are not systematically robbed every season. Instead of merely purloining a few apples, ripeor unripe, the ioss of which would not cost the owner a second thought, the mode in which trees are beiug i stripped of partially ripe fruit, and that in considerable quantities, shows that grown up people may be suspected to be behind the scenes, and paying children to run a very nominul risk in order that others may profit thereby. It is difficult to capture the "youngsters in the act when they are under the experienced guidance of parents or others, and if they are luckily caught, a spurious philanthrophy generully forbids the offenders being promptly whipped. Of course i it is ridiculous to scud a school child to gaol, ahd the injured parties must not aveuge their own wrongs- by tak ing the law iuto their own hands, but we strongly recommend that fruit , growers should band together to offer substantial rewards for the conviction of receivers of stolen fruit, and also to take concerted steps themselves to expose the thieves. We must confess to having a warmer sympathy for such as have long suffered from this paltry crime, than the youug blackguards wbo may be expected to get a sound thrashing either from some outraged pomologist or from a legally appointed flogger.