FLOWER ROBBERS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 350, 11 October 1932, Page 2

FLOWER ROBBERS

RANGERS' LEAGUE FORMED TO FRUSTRATE "YANDALISM. EXCITiNG ENCOUNTERS. ,ln view of ihe fact that gardens are being robbed in Rotorua and valuable plants stolen, it should he interesting to read about the steps taken in New South Wales to protect the wild flowers of the fields and bush from wholesale destruction,'. A rangers' league has been formed. Its ideal is to preserve the protected wild flowers and native animals of the bush. tln achieving this obj'eetive, its 300 members, mostly men, of whom about 150 work in the metropolitan area, enjoy the excitements, in a mild way, of American Prohibition Enforcement officers. The "racketteers" of the bush are professional flower-pickers, accqrding to Mr. W. P. Trinnick (of the Rangers' League), who motor to the country at night and, as day breaks, cornb the hills and fields, stripping the countryside of its flowers. One day a field is a mass of colour, the next morning a harren waste. According to the rangers, protected wild flowers are pulled up by the roots in the scramble to bag them and get away to market before nine o'clock. The law permits the picking of wild flowers on private land, if the owner has giYen permission in writing. So, to cover their misdeeds, the professional pickers obtain a permit ffoni a friend with a property. When their lorries of wild flowers are stopped by the police or by rangers, the permit is produced, and, unless the rangers have actually seen them picking flowers on Crown land or property other than that described in th'e p;ermit, it is difficult to prove anything. On thie Job Early. For this reason the rangers have to be up ;at midnight and on the job before dawn. Sometimes they camp all night on land where they anticipate pickers will work. Then it is a matter of strategy to catch the pickers, and more often than not there's a fight before the job is done. If the pickers are too numerous and powerful to be attacked openly, the rangers will telephone headquarters, and have a car, complete with police, waiting to catch the lorry load of wild flowers. iRecently this was done with a picker who had been after waratahs. Over a thousand of these protected flowers were found in his lorry. He produced th'e usual permit, showing he had worked on private land. In this instance, the rangers and police took him back to the property and asked him to show where he got the thousand waratahs. As the property had none of these flowers at all, he was prosecuted and fined £10. But. is cost tbe Rangers League almost "-ts much to prove tbeir case.