Picking Pockets.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 31 July 1914, Page 8

Picking Pockets.

The Bishop of Worcester told a capital story the other day in connection with the efforts of the Church in that part of the country to alleviate the lot of the hoppers. One of the workers who had gone down to the hop-fields to assist met a dilapidated individual in a country land, who, in response to a question, said he was a picker. This did not convey much to the inquirer and he pursued the subject. The hop-picker readily responded. He said : "l n the summer months I picks peas and fruit ; then when autumn comes round I'picks hops; and in the winter, when the weather's dull, I picks pockets. Then, when I'm caught I picks oakum. I'm kept nice and warm during the cold months, and then, when the nice days come round again, I start pea-picking, and so on afresh."