[']Chuck us down that net on top of the lockers, Stalky.' / 'That's all right. It's a collapsible jamboree, too. Beastly luxurious dogs these fags are. Built like a fishin'-rod.[']The word, describing a butterfly-net, appears to be used in the sense of gizmo or thingamajig.
1898 August, Rudyard Kipling, “‘In Ambush’”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, page 4