PAPERSPAST

VAGRANCY AT AUCKLAND.

Editor, "The Jlaoriland Worker," —Am I in danger of getting locked up for vagrancy? For four weeks I have had no work, and occasionally I venture tlo-.ni Quct'u Street, even on to tho wharf, somotimes with very little coin in my pocket, and when I havo money (our coin not being like the Chine.so coin) I'can't wear ■it as "vhiWo w.canr" on a strine: around my neck. The recent attempt.to make a vagrant of W. A. .Jobnstone by thebloodhounds of tho law (as reported iv tho "Star") r.nke:i mc wonder why wo hear so much .just .now of tho tyranny of German militarism, when tbo same microbe, is growing lore: in the police. Apparently ,tho mere -fact that a fowpounds-to;4ii3 credit sa;ed him from M_t, Eden. But what if ho hadn't!?._ If having noiuor.oy •is a crime, then limagino r that qni ; .o. 'a- largo number of men -bw' , . better vegetate in their.burrow: pst n>

The present position of the "boir.y- I handed" seems to bo tVit if iio :i-is no money ho is a vagrant. If during a-quarter of a century he has managed Jto save the enormous Bum of £130, then the generous-minded police suggestion is: "Where did ho get it?" When bo applies for membership in tho Watersiders' "Union" ho is refused 'admission even by paying an exorbitant feo (I thought os. was the "arbitration" limit?). Then, not being a. ! member of the union., ho can't havo a job, and because ho has no work ho is a vagrant. Wo. toilors may fear such I laws, but surely wo are not expected ito feel respect for them.-■NOT-A VTATERSIDER. Auckland.

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