A LONELY TASK

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2340, 11 October 1921, Page 4

A LONELY TASK

MINDING THE SEAGULLS

A recent advertisement in a New York paper asked for a man wishing to live alone on an island in a lake eight miles from the shore. The advertiser was a New York business man who, wishing to prevent the pollution of rivers and harbours by mill waste, had found that the seagull was the most useful of all scavengers, and thereupon proceeded to make seagull protection his hobby.

His estate lay on the shores of a lake in Vermont, and he found that the neighbouring people were in the habit of rowing out: to some islands in its centre and robbing the gulls of their eggs.

Accordingly, lie looked about for a man to lake care of the birds, but all the country people refused the post, as it was too lonely. When, however, he advertised for an island warden in the city papers, he received 900 applications. Since then he has repeated the advertise-' ment every year. This year 1,000 people were willing to maroon themselves on the island.